A few noteworthy articles and announcements that have come to my attention:

KQED Forum to explore college issues

Tune in KQED radio’s Forum at 9 a.m. Wednesday for a two-hour exploration of issues faced by first-generation college students and their families. Host Michael Krasny will  broadcast live from Downtown College Prep in San Jose, the first charter school in Santa Clara County and a 10-year successful partnership between the school and San Jose Unified. The largely Hispanic school recruits students who aspire to college but have not done well in middle school and prepares them for a four-year college.

Panelists will include Michael Kirst, Stanford emeritus education professor, writer and an authority on the transition between high school and colllege,  Downtown College Prep founder and executive director Jennifer Andaluz, principal Michael DeSouza, counselors from James Lick High in East San Jose and from Santa Clara University, as well as graduates of the charter school.

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By John Fensterwald on March 9th, 2010

Comments on Worth hearing and reading

A six-month stab at school competition with nationwide interest ended Tuesday when Los Angeles Unified school board members turned control of more schools to groups of teachers than Superintendent Ramon Cortines had recommended. There will certainly  be an injection of experimentation in schools organized by unionized teachers as a result– but also fewer quality charter schools than had been predicted in August when the trustees opened up 12 low-performing schools and 18 new schools to bids by outside groups.

United Teachers Los Angeles, which has seen a decline in membership and could lose hundreds more teachers to layoffs next fall, lobbied hard to keep the 30 schools under its control. In the end, board members gave union-affiliated teachers 22 of the 30 campuses, with four new schools turned over to charters and three to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s non-profit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

The board’s decision to shut out three of the city’s respected charter school outfits – Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and  Green Dot Public Schools from sharing five small schools at the new Esteban Torres High School, and ICEF (Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools)  from sharing the campus at the new Barack Obama Global Prep – frustrated  charter advocates. Jed Wallace, CEO of the California Charter Schools Association, said in a statement that “the supporters of the status quo and adult concerns trump(ed) making good decisions on the behalf of children.”

Ben Austin, an organizer for the group Parent Revolution, was more blunt in an e-mail: “Parents are going to take back and transform their schools by any means necessary because they only get one chance to give their kids the education they deserve.”

If anyone is worrying about bloodshed on the streets, Austin is talking about the metaphorical “parent trigger” ­– the law that the Legislature passed last month allowing a majority of parents to petition local school trustees  to turn around their struggling school. One option, which some parent groups will demand, is to invite in a charter school, though the board has the final say. Within a few months, Los Angeles may see the first petition.

Los Angeles Unified’s public school choice motion is designed to create innovation through competition. That will happen in some of the 30 schools, where teacher groups, threatened with a loss of jobs, came up with interesting plans. But charter participation is the leverage to make change happen. Whether the board’s vote shutting out some of the charters will discourage more from applying in the next round remains an open question.

By John Fensterwald on February 24th, 2010

Comments on Charters edged out in L.A.

Anti-charter school boards and superintendents no doubt are bookmarking a report that found that charter schools nationwide and in California are more racially and ethnically segregated than traditional public schools. They’ll cite the study, by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA,  as a rationale for denying a charter application or creating new demographic obstacles, under the guise of integration, that many urban charter schools cannot overcome.

That would be disastrous for minority families who choose charters as an alternative to their neighborhood failing schools.

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By John Fensterwald on February 8th, 2010

Comments on Data don’t tell full story in charter ’segregation’ study

On Saturday, parents, teachers, students, neighbors – truth is, anyone who feels like it – will have another chance to vote on who should take over 30 Los Angeles Unified schools.

If the balloting is anything like Tuesday’s fiasco at the polls, Superintendent Ramon Cortines should take all the votes and shred them. That chaotic exercise in democracy threatened to discredit  the district’s bold experiment in school choice.

In a move that has drawn national attention, last fall the school board agreed to open up 12 failing schools and 18 new schools to bids from charter schools, community organizations and in-district groups of teachers and administrators. It’s the first round of a multi-year process that promises to transform the nation’s second largest district – and one of the nation’s most intransigent. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 5th, 2010

Comments on L.A. teachers, parents vote early – and often

For years, charter schools leaders and their supporters in Silicon Valley, and district officials and teachers have been talking at each other at charter hearings and accusingly behind each other’s backs.

Rarely had they talked directly to one another frankly and civilly – at least for any length of time. But that’s what happened for seven hours Saturday during a Charter Summit that the trustees of the Santa Clara County Office of Education organized.

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By John Fensterwald on February 3rd, 2010

Comments on A frank and civil dialogue on charters

Russlynn Ali, one of  several California  expats in key positions in the U.S. Department of Education, praised and chided charter school reformers in a talk in San Jose.

She said that school districts should be partnering with charters as “labs of innovation we all can learn from.” What distinguishes effective charter schools are commonsense strategies – “more time on task, more parental involvement, strong leadership,” she said Saturday. But Ali,  the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, also called for authorizers of charter school to be more resolute in shutting down schools that aren’t showing academic success. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on February 1st, 2010

Comments on Model by example: close failing charter schools

It’s certainly no surprise that United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers union in Los Angeles Unified, would sue to  thwart charter schools from participating in the district’s bold  program of reform.

What’s surprising is the union couldn’t make a more artful argument.

This week, the UTLA sued the district to try to prevent charter operators from competing to run up to two dozen new schools that the school board voted 6-1 last August to put out to bid. Applications to operate the schools, which will open next fall, are due Jan. 11, and charter operators have indicated they’ll be bidding for all of them. The board will also consider applicants for an additional dozen persistently low-achieving schools, including Garfield High of “Stand and Deliver” fame.

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By John Fensterwald on December 24th, 2009

Comments on If you can’t beat ‘em, ban ‘em

Removing the annual cap on charter schools is out; giving parents in failing schools the right to transfer to  another district is in. And so is a public commission, with plenty of teachers on it, to review proposed changes to state academic standards.

In the latest twist in a battle of wills and education lobbies, the Senate yesterday passed a new version of Race to the Top legislation – SBX5-4 – and sent it to the Assembly. It’s not a done deal, but the bill followed intense negotiations involving aides for Gov. Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speak Karen Bass. Bass, in a statement, said “we have resolved all of the essential issues.’’ And the Legislature knows it has all but run out of time, with the state application for a piece of the $4.3 billion Race to the Top competition due Jan. 19.

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By John Fensterwald on December 17th, 2009

Comments on Race to Top compromise heads to Assembly

As expected, the Assembly passed its version of Race to the Top legislation Thursday, largely along partisan lines, 47-25. Even before the vote, Gov. Schwarzenegger  vowed to veto the bill, saying, “It’s not a race to mediocrity, it’s a race to the top. We want to make sure we get a good bill out there.”

So what would it take to get a bill that Democrats and Schwarzenegger could live with? Probably not all that much: some word changes to Assemblywoman Julia Brownley’s ABX5-8 blended with some pieces of Sen. Gloria Romero’s SBX5-1. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on December 11th, 2009

Comments on Race to Top compromise should be doable

A majority of parents at a low-performing school could force a district trustees to turn it over to a charter school operator or take other dramatic actions, under an amendment that Sen. Gloria Romero has added to her Race to the Top legislation.

The Assembly Education Committee will take up a competing bill, ABX5-8, sponsored by Chairwoman Julia Brownley, and possibly Romero’s SBX5-1, tomorrow. Assembly leaders haven’t indicated  whether they’ll seriously consider Romero’s bill.

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By John Fensterwald on December 7th, 2009

Comments on Race to Top bill would give parents more power