An Opportunity for More Learning about Value Added Evaluations

Click the title below to visit the KPCC web page. 

Making Better Teachers: the Fight Over "Value-Added" Evaluation
Thursday, November 11, 2010
6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Crawford Family Forum
474 S. Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105


Recent articles in the Los Angeles Times regarding “value-added” teacher assessments have generated a nationwide debate on how best to evaluate teachers. That debate has pitted President Obama’s Secretary of Education against teacher union leaders and many academics. AirTalk host Larry Mantle and guest experts debate the "value-added" teacher method of evaluating teachers. If not "value-added" then what is the best way to evaluate teachers and ultimately benefit the kids in the classroom? And what role should student performance play in assessing teacher performance?

Guests:

Eric Hanushek, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. His pioneering analysis measuring teacher quality through student achievement forms the current research into the value-added of teachers and schools.

Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute. From 1999 to 2002 he was the national education columnist of The New York Times. He is the author of Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right.

Report on WiseLA's Research on LAUSD School Reform

As we work to build our advocacy for LAUSD reform, we've had many research meetings.  Here are the people we met with which guided us towards our advocacy for Transparent Budgeting and Teacher Effectiveness Procedures: 
Michelle Windmueller, Principal, Selma Elementary
Leadership of Temple Isaiah Education Reform committee.
Drew Furedi and others from Taskforce for Teacher Effectiveness (LAUSD)
Julie Flappan and John Rodgers - IDEA (UCLA) The Institute for Democracy, Education, & Access
Saskia Pallais (Partnership for LA schools)
Leticia Garcia - Senator Gloria Romero's Education Specialist -
Tamar Galatzan, LAUSD Board Member
Peter Kuhns, ACCE - Aug 11th 10.
Antonia Viaragosa: Mayor's Listening Session on Education -
Steve Zimmer LAUSD Board Member
Yolie Flores, LAUSD Board Member

Clearly, we have surveyed a broad range of experts and their information has been invaluable and will guide us as we move forward.  Thanks to our committed LAUSD Education Reform Leadership Team for the commitment and thoughtfulness. 

On Sunday, October 10th we had our first Education Reform Forum.  Tamar Galatzan, Steve Zimmer, Drew Furedi, Marshal Tuck (form the Partnership for LA School), and Julie Flappan presented.  Nearly 200 people learned about their initiatives and passions and had the opportunity to ask questions about the work being done. 

Waiting For Superman - See the movie become an advocate!

Find out more about Waiting for Superman and the issues that are addressed in the movie.  How can you become a partner with them in School Reform?  Click here. 

See Rabbi Stern's Sermon: Reform our Schools Now!

Click Here

Rabbi Stern's Sermon: Breaking the Cycle of our "Money Culture"

Video of LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer speaking about Bank Accountability

Report from the Teacher Effectiveness Task force of LAUSD and UTLA

LAUSD Teacher Effectiveness Task Force Web Page

(Image only, use text above to link to the web site)

LAUSD Board moves to reform collective bargaining process to bring teacher workforce stability to local campuses

From the Office of Communications and Media Relations of LAUSD (June 15, 2010):
LAUSD BOARD MOVES TO REFORM COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PROCESS TO BRING TEACHER WORKFORCE STABILITY TO LOCAL CAMPUSES
Resolution seeks flexibility in allowing reduction- in-force based on criteria other than seniority

(Los Angeles, CA) The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board of Education today approved a resolution to ensure school site workforce stability and equal access to effective teachers for all students. The resolution was passed on a 4-1 vote with one abstention. The resolution, Protecting Equal Access and Opportunity for All Our Students, was introduced by LAUSD Board Vice President Yolie Flores and Board Member Tamar Galatzan.

The resolution calls for Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines to engage the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Public Counsel, the State Board of Education, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), and other advocates to join the District in urging California lawmakers to immediately support legislative changes that would give school districts flexibility to protect equal access and educational opportunities for all students by allowing reductions-in-force based on criteria other than seniority.

“We have a responsibility to ensure that every student – in every one of our classrooms – is taught by an outstanding teacher,” said Board Vice President Flores. “To ensure school site stability and equal access to effective teachers, the District needs to be able to staff schools in a manner that minimizes the impact of seniority-based layoffs and simultaneously acknowledges the contributions of high quality teachers, regardless of their years of experience. Indeed, parents and students alike are asking that we find a way to make decisions based on whose teaching is the strongest, not on who’s been teaching the longest.”

The resolution also directs the superintendent to immediately develop a negotiations strategy to reform and improve all aspects of the collective bargaining agreement that may impede the ability to protect the stability of teaching staffs at all District schools. It further seeks to work and engage reform partners to revise and improve procedures affecting staffing at school sites.

"Providing a quality education to our students is not possible without the ability to keep our strongest teachers in the classroom," said LAUSD Boardmember Galatzan. "This resolution brings us a step closer to meeting that goal across the District."

During the last round of layoffs, a number of schools in the District had 50 percent or more of their teachers receiving reduction-in-force notices in 2009. These schools were often low performing with high percentages of low-income students. A large number of those teachers laid off were new, enthusiastic and effective teachers who are typically the drivers of high achievement and providers of a quality education for all students.

The recent preliminary injunction issued in the Reed v. LAUSD et al. lawsuit (it suspends budgetbased teacher layoffs at three District middle schools for the 2010-2011 school year only) is a lower court ruling. It is not binding authority that would allow the District to skip other schools this year or any District schools in the future.

Also, there is no settled legal authority under which the District may “skip” entire school sites under Education Code Section 44955. The statute permits deviation from a seniority-based layoff in only two circumstances: 1) where less senior teachers have special training or experience that more senior teachers do not have, and 2) when a constitutional violation has been identified and skipping is needed in order to maintain or achieve compliance.

The resolution also calls for the District to do everything it can to provide equal educational opportunities to students attending LAUSD schools, encourage local staffing control that focus on quality recruitment and retention of classified and certificated personnel, and pursue opportunities to amend the current collective bargaining agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). This will allow schools the ability to staff and maintain optimum stability in the best interest of the students’ instructional program.

Commenting on the Board’s action today, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, "The current, broken system fails to recognize the invaluable contributions talented teachers make in the lives of our students. We cannot stand by while our children suffer from teacher layoffs that prevent schools from providing a stable workforce of quality teachers.

“Our primary concern must be that every student has access to a high quality education--one that enables them to get into and graduate from college--and I congratulate the school board for passing this resolution and continuing to protect the rights of our students,” he continued.

www.lausd.net

HIAS' Immgration Reform Advocacy

We Were Strangers, Too:
the Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform

HIAS and our national and local Jewish organization partners have launched We Were Strangers, Too: the Jewish Campaign for Immigration Reform. This campaign calls on Congress to make immigration reform a priority in the 111th Congress.


The We Were Strangers, Too campaign calls for immigration legislation that:

Keeps families united and decreases the waiting time for family re-unification.

Creates pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Creates a plan for future migration flows in order to protect all workers' rights.

Empowers immigrants to fully integrate by providing financial support to local governments and community organizations that offer classes and services.

Establishes border protection and enforcement policies that bolster our national security, while balancing enforcement with economic development and human and civil rights.

Read more click here. . . .

IKAR's Open Letter about Immigration Reform

Dear friend,
A national movement supporting comprehensive immigration reform has been gathering momentum in recent weeks. Humane immigration reform is a moral issue that has a special resonance for the Jewish community. With the memory of being “strangers in a strange land” fresh in our hearts and minds after Pesach, many of us believe that it is vital for us to stand together as Jews in voicing our support for reform. One way to voice support is to sign the open letter by clicking here. This letter and its signatures will be sent to our members of congress, senators, and of course, to President Obama.
Please read the open letter and consider signing it. And, please forward it to your congregants, American Jewish friends, family, and colleagues. The more people who sign the letter, the more powerful our collective voice will be.

Please include your email address so that you can be kept up to date
with the journey this letter takes.

This open letter was put together by members of IKAR. IKAR is a Los
Angeles based Jewish spiritual community that stands at the
intersection of spirituality and social justice. For information about
IKAR click here

From the Website: www.faithforjustice.org

Enjoy this brief PSA of rabbis, imans, pastors and people of many religions affirming their commitment to social justice. 

Social Justice and the World's Religions

Immigration Reform Debate, Myths and Truths

A good resource from the Washington Post.  Click here. 

Social Action Updates

• Wednesday, April 28th: The first meeting of the Tzedakah Council.  This is where it will all happen!  For the first time, we've created a council for all the members of Stephen S. Wise Temple (and our schools) who are involved in special projects working for the good of our community.  We'll create strategies for getting more and more members of our community involved in long term social action projects and work as the clearing house for projects that become priorities for advocacy throughout our community.  Interested?  Email Rabbi Stern, click here.

• Sunday, May 2nd.  Ten volunteers (8 medical professionals and 2 others) will head to RAM LA to volunteer our time helping the uninsured in our community.  Others from the Temple have made it their priority to volunteer at RAM LA during other days of service.  We can be proud of our folks who've given up their own time to serve those desperately in need.  Did you go?  Tell your story be responding to the blog below.  

Why we, as Jews, support humane immigration reform

An open letter to President Obama and our Senators and Representatives in Congress:

We Jews are children of the Exodus. In ancient times, our community was forged in response to the memory of brutality in the land of Egypt and the march to a better world. More recently, American Jews share a history of leaving an Old World of hardship and prejudice for a land of hope and opportunity. . . .  (Read and sign the letter by clicking here.)

Immigration Reform Forum sponsored by KPCC

Reforming immigration, transforming California?
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
6:30 p.m.
The Crawford Family Forum with KPCC's Larry Mantle from Airtalk
474 S Raymond Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91105

As soon as healthcare overhaul was signed into law, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposed a legislative outline for immigration reform. It’s poised to be the next big battle in Washington. On April 14th in the Crawford Family Forum Larry Mantle and a panel of guests will debate the proposal and discuss how it might affect immigrants in our region. Join Larry Mantle and guests for this in-depth discussion Wednesday evening, April 14th, at 6:30.

Stephen S. Wise Temple has no affiliation with this event, this is provided for information purposes only.
RSVPs are required.-- Click here.

Immigration Reform and Jewish Values: A Sermon in Three Parts

Continuing our conversation about Immigration Reform, Rabbi Stern integrated Jewish perspectives on immigration into a Kabbalat Shabbat service.  See the videos here:

Part 1 click here.
  

Part 2 click here.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

The Reform Movement is the only Jewish religious movement to have a full time lobbying center in Washington, D.C. for social justice.  This represents the founding principle of Reform Judiasm that affirms a commitment to social justice.  Though the positions that are taken by the RAC (Religious Action Center) are sometimes controversial, more often than not, the RAC is at the front of vital social change and leads the way for policy the ultimately follows. 

Visit the RAC page on Immigration Reform by clicking here.

Paul Koretz Responds Favorably to LA Voice Endorsed Resolution (and to Rabbi Stern's call)

Following is a press release from Paul Koretz's office.  LA Voice received word of Richard Alarcon's intention to bring the resolution discussed below up at city council.  Word went out to the LA Voice clergy base to encourage our city council representatives to support the resolution.  After reviewing the details of the resolution, Rabbi Stern called Paul Koretz's office to encourage his support.  Happily, Council Member Koretz supported the resolution and it passed.  Rabbi Stern is grateful to the staff of Mr. Koretz's office as well as Mr. Koretz himself for the follow-up phone calls affirming support.  Paul Koretz will remain an important resource, advocate and partner for the continuing Social Justice work at our synagogue, his responsiveness to the Investment/Divestment Resolution below reflects the strength of our community's relationship with his office. 

Press Release                                                  Contact:  Paul Michael Neuman

March 5, 2010                                                     (213) 473-7005

Koretz speaks out strongly in favor of “Responsible Lending” motion

Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz today voted in favor of Richard Alarcon’s motion to promote socially responsible, community-friendly banking practices.

Councilmember Koretz said, “This a tremendous effort that can help protect people and neighborhoods.  We need banking in our society, but we need banks that are responsive to community needs and fair and just in how they treat their customers.  It will be greatly beneficial to have our city encourage responsible banking practices, including by favoring banks that invest back in the communities of Los Angeles.”

The motion by Alarcon will lead to the creation of a “report card” to evaluate the track record of banks that want to do business with the City. The report will include date on such things as the number of small business loans, evidence of working with homeowners facing disclosure, the numbers and locations of branches and ATMs, and the use of federal TARP funds.

Councilmember Koretz added, “I’m especially pleased that the City will now be able to use its authority and influence to guide banks towards helping people keep their homes – the last thing we should want is to have more people, who are already desperately struggling to stay afloat, lose their homes to foreclosure.  We want banks that truly help families, small businesses and neighborhoods.  In these tough economic times – which were caused, in large part, by irresponsible and predatory banking practices – we need banks to do their fair share serving the communities and helping the people of this City.  Today our City Council took an important step for that very cause.”

LA Times: Obama looking to give new life to immigration reform

In an effort to advance a bill through Congress before midterm elections, the president meets with two senators who have spent months trying to craft legislation.
By Peter Nicholas

March 4, 2010 | 6:18 p.m.

Reporting from Washington - Despite steep odds, the White House has discussed prospects for reviving a major overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, a commitment that President Obama has postponed once already.

Obama took up the issue privately with his staff Monday in a bid to advance a bill through Congress before lawmakers become too distracted by approaching midterm elections.

In the session, Obama and members of his Domestic Policy Council outlined ways to resuscitate the effort in a White House meeting with two senators -- Democrat Charles E. Schumer of New York and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- who have spent months trying to craft a bill.

According to a person familiar with the meeting, the White House may ask Schumer and Graham to at least produce a blueprint that could be turned into legislative language.

The basis of a bill would include a path toward citizenship for the 10.8 million people living in the U.S. illegally. Citizenship would not be granted lightly, the White House said. Undocumented workers would need to register, pay taxes and pay a penalty for violating the law. Failure to comply might result in deportation.

Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman, said the president's support for an immigration bill, which would also include improved border security, was "unwavering."

Participants in the White House gathering also pointed to an immigration rally set for March 21 in Washington as a way to spotlight the issue and build needed momentum.

Though proponents of an immigration overhaul were pleased that the White House wasn't abandoning the effort, they also wanted Obama to take on a more assertive role, rather than leave it to Congress to work out a compromise.

Immigration is a delicate issue for the White House. After promising to revamp in his first year of office what many see as a fractured system, Obama risks angering a growing, politically potent Latino constituency if he defers the goal until 2011.

But with the healthcare debate still unresolved, Democrats are wary of plunging into another polarizing issue.

"Right now we have a little problem with the 'Chicken Little' mentality: The sky is falling and consequently we can't do anything," Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said in an interview.

Republicans are unlikely to cooperate. On Capitol Hill, Republicans said that partisan tensions had only gotten worse since Obama signaled this week that he would push forward with a healthcare bill, whether he could get GOP votes or not.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said in an interview, "The things you hear from the administration won't be well received."

Schumer, speaking as he walked quickly through the Capitol, said he was having trouble rounding up Republican supporters apart from Graham. "It's tough finding someone, but we're trying," Schumer said.

On Thursday, Schumer met with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who oversees the government's immigration efforts, to strategize over potential Republican co-sponsors.

"We're very hopeful we can get a bill done. We have all the pieces in place. We just need a second Republican," Schumer said in a statement.

Among proponents, there is a consensus that a proposal must move by April or early May to have a realistic chance of passing this year. If that deadline slips, Congress' focus is likely to shift to the November elections, making it impossible to take up major legislation.

"There's no question that this is a heavy lift and the window is narrowing," said Janet Murguia, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group.

When it comes to immigration, Obama's strategy echoes that of healthcare. He has deferred heavily to Congress, leaving it up to Schumer and Graham to reach a breakthrough with the idea that he would put his weight behind the resulting compromise.

peter.nicholas@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Editorial in Immigration Reform from the Forward and Ha'aretz

Haaretz
31/01/2010

U.S. Jews and Latinos form unlikely bond over immigration policy
By Nathan Guttman, The Forward


Even as health care reform twists in the wind, immigration policy looms as the next big political debate, and Hispanics and Jews are moving to the forefront in a burgeoning political alliance.

The next three months are seen as critical in the fight for immigration reform, but the weakening of the Democrats, grip on Congress with the recent loss of a key Massachusetts Senate seat does not bode well for the passage of reform legislation.

The Jewish-Latino alliance on immigration issues builds on the heritage and experience of the Jewish community and on the enthusiasm and urgent needs of the Hispanic community, which has a strong interest in issues of family unification and the status of the some 12 million illegal immigrants, most of them from Latin America.

But Jewish activists also see the joint work as an opening for cooperation with the Hispanic community on other issues, such as Israel.

"If we want to engage with the Latino community on issues that are of concern for us, including Israel, we need to engage on issues that bother their community," said Gideon Aronoff, president and CEO of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. "We want to create growing bonds with the Latino community, and we cannot create these bonds if we are indifferent to the issues that are of concern to them."

Alliance: Luis Gutierrez (left) and Charles Schumer are trying to drive reform through Congress. Some advocates view the ethnic backgrounds of the two key lawmakers leading the drive for immigration reform as symbolic of the growing alliance on the issue. In the House, the main immigration reform bill was presented Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, and in the Senate it is expected that New York's Senator Charles Schumer will soon present his version of immigration reform legislation.

The Gutierrez bill has been praised by advocates for immigrants as providing answers to most of the concerns of the Hispanic community, but so far it has failed to gain any Republican support.

Schumer's bill, now in the making, is expected to have more bipartisan appeal, by taking a nuanced approach to the thorny issue of providing a path to legalization for millions of illegal immigrants.

While Democratic-backed health care reform legislation was uniformly opposed by Republicans and now seems to be stuck in Congress, advocates agree that immigration reform stands no chance of passage without bipartisan support.

But immigration advocates believe that the blow suffered by health care reform supporters following the Massachusetts Senate election does not necessarily dictate the same fate for immigration reform. Indeed, said HIAS’s Aronoff, it might even help the cause, due to increased pressure on lawmakers to show progress on key issues. "All Americans have seen the gridlock in Washington and are very frustrated with it” he said. “Now the president and Congress need to show that they can solve problems for Americans."

But with the political clock ticking, supporters of reform fear that major legislation is becoming harder to pass, and so they set the first half of 2010 as a desired deadline for passing legislation. "Every day we get closer to the elections, the harder it becomes," said Richard Foltin, director of national and legislative affairs at the American Jewish Committee, referring to upcoming congressional elections.

Jewish communal support for immigration reform is organized around several principles, including the need for a path to legalization for illegal immigrants; a mechanism for dealing with future immigration waves; speeding up work on family unification; integrating new immigrants into American society; and finding, as Jewish immigration advocates put it, an "effective and humane" way of enforcing immigration laws and border control.

This last point seems to be a growing concern within the Jewish community, said Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs based in Chicago. Ramsey, whose organization has been working closely with Hispanic groups, stressed that while both communities strongly support immigration reform, there is still a need to instill in members of the Jewish community the importance of the issue, which for most Jews carries a symbolic, not personal, importance.

"Our community is one step removed," she said, "and therefore it is very important to make it real for people by interacting with the Latino community."

While the Jewish organizational world is essentially united on this issue, some have argued that the Jewish rank-and-file is not on entirely the same page as communal leaders.

The supposed divide between religious leaders of various stripes and their rank-and-file was the focus of a recent survey, sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that opposes granting illegal immigrants a path to legalization and instead argues that many will return to their home countries if immigration laws are better enforced. That poll, which was conducted online by Zogby International in December, found that Jews were roughly equally divided between those who prefer a stepped-up enforcement approach and those who prefer granting legal status with a path to citizenship.

Jewish immigration advocates have questioned the survey's methodology, but they agree that there are diverse opinions within the community. Yet the CIS poll also found that Jews were still considerably more likely than members of other religious groups to support granting legal status to illegal immigrants, a finding that immigration advocates say rings true.

The organized Jewish community is more committed than ever to immigration reform. A letter supporting immigration reform, which will be sent out to all Senate offices in early February, was signed by dozens of national Jewish organizations.

Joining forces with the Hispanic community has been a longstanding goal for Jewish groups. But what seems to be a rare chance to reform immigration laws has helped galvanize the relationship.

At a January 10 roundtable in Durham, N.C., Jewish and Latino activists shared their immigration experiences and looked for ways to work together in support of the legislation. "We broke into groups and spoke about the similarity between our grandparents' immigration and their experience nowadays," said Stephanie Grosser, who has been coordinating outreach efforts for HIAS.

One of the issues activists from both sides discussed was hate and hostility directed at immigrants, both past and present-day, whether they were Jewish newcomers at the turn of the 20th century or Latinos in recent decades. "After we talked about why the Jewish community cares about immigration, two Latino women from the crowd came up and hugged me," Grosser recalled.

Cooperation between the two communities goes beyond the issue of immigration reform and includes many joint programs on the local level. On the national level, Jewish and Latino groups are part of broader coalitions organizing a Washington rally in March in favor of immigration reform, which will be preceded by advocacy work in congressional districts during the February congressional recess.

Jewish groups bring to the table their experience and well-established network of political contacts, a contribution highly appreciated by Hispanic organizers.

"For us, as newcomers to the society, this experience is extraordinary," said Gutavo Torres, president of Casa Maryland, a Hispanic group active in the metropolitan Washington area. "They know how to work through the system, how to lobby, how to advocate. The Jewish community has a lot of experience and a lot of power."

Jewish organizations have been increasing their efforts to reach out to the Hispanic community for several years, and most national groups have established joint programs and sponsored Jewish-Hispanic events. With the rapid growth of the Hispanic community and with its rising political clout, Jewish groups see added value in building bridges to the community.

"We are working on immigration, because it is the right thing to do, because it is part of our values," said the AJC's Foltin. "But the dialogue also creates better understanding for the needs of our community."