Nose, etc, burning... Dad, great timing last week :-)
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/smoky-skies.html
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
LAUSD School Board Vote
Vote could open 250 L.A. schools to outside operators
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-schools26-2009aug26,0,4203620.story
This vote will set up a procedure for the LAUSD to "giveaway" campuses (allow charter schools to operate them) including 50 schools currently under construction.
Obviously as a public school teacher I am a proponent of public schools, but I think we do have to admit we're failing. This whole thing is basically coming down to a fight over unionization of teachers. From the article:
There are things the union needs to make compromises on to allow reform to happen. If the schools can't get rid of, or at least keep from becoming permanent, crappy teachers in their 2-year probationary period, maybe it does need to be extended. But doesn't this beg the question, what is going on with the administrators at the schools that they can't do what is necessary to keep crappy teachers from becoming permanent after 2 years. We have this problem in my school. We have a math teacher who's been there for 5 years and is horrible. They certain knew this after 2 years but she wasn't kept from becoming permanent and now the process to get rid of her is much more difficult. Last year our principal made a deal with her that she wouldn't give her an unsatisfactory review if she would transfer. She of course hasn't found anywhere to go and will be back with A-track.
Also, I haven't been evaluated over my 2 years, and now I'm permanent. We have a principal and 5 APs, and they can't take care of this stuff? Sigh...
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd-schools26-2009aug26,0,4203620.story
This vote will set up a procedure for the LAUSD to "giveaway" campuses (allow charter schools to operate them) including 50 schools currently under construction.
Obviously as a public school teacher I am a proponent of public schools, but I think we do have to admit we're failing. This whole thing is basically coming down to a fight over unionization of teachers. From the article:
District officials and others have said their ability to achieve more than incremental progress is hindered by the powerful teachers union, whose contract makes it nearly impossible to fire ineffective tenured teachers. Union leaders blame a district bureaucracy that they say fails to include teachers in "top-down reforms."
There are things the union needs to make compromises on to allow reform to happen. If the schools can't get rid of, or at least keep from becoming permanent, crappy teachers in their 2-year probationary period, maybe it does need to be extended. But doesn't this beg the question, what is going on with the administrators at the schools that they can't do what is necessary to keep crappy teachers from becoming permanent after 2 years. We have this problem in my school. We have a math teacher who's been there for 5 years and is horrible. They certain knew this after 2 years but she wasn't kept from becoming permanent and now the process to get rid of her is much more difficult. Last year our principal made a deal with her that she wouldn't give her an unsatisfactory review if she would transfer. She of course hasn't found anywhere to go and will be back with A-track.
Also, I haven't been evaluated over my 2 years, and now I'm permanent. We have a principal and 5 APs, and they can't take care of this stuff? Sigh...
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
100 m Future Time
As the graph indicates, the logistic fit, linear regression and actual times for the 100 m male sprint. It would have to been interesting to follow the linear regression line and see if "theoretically" men can ever run a 0 sec 100 meter. I also wonder if Oscar Pistorius, the man with metal prosthetic limbs, can ever take us south of the limit 9.48 sec?
Monday, August 24, 2009
A problem the market might be able to solve...
Advertisers back away from talk shows
While talk show host Glenn Beck was on vacation, a lot of his advertisers left him due to his comment that President Obama is a racist. Advertisers are distancing their products from other cable news talk shows as well. Jeremy Hobson reports.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/24/pm-beck/
While talk show host Glenn Beck was on vacation, a lot of his advertisers left him due to his comment that President Obama is a racist. Advertisers are distancing their products from other cable news talk shows as well. Jeremy Hobson reports.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/24/pm-beck/
I love maps :)
So here's one I found interesting... It is a lot easier on the yes, in my opinion, if you remove the county borders.
For ex: Montgomery County, OH's unemployement rate is higher than Los Angeles's...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111494514
For ex: Montgomery County, OH's unemployement rate is higher than Los Angeles's...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111494514
Monday, August 3, 2009
Foshay (my school)'s history from our outgoing principal
ABOUT FOSHAY…
Fabulous Foshay celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2005! James A. Foshay Junior High School opened its doors for the first time in February 1925 with an enrollment of 1300 primarily white students. Today, Foshay is a multi-track, year-round Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Learning Center for over 3,100 Kindergarten through 12th grade students, 78% of whom are Latino, 21% African-American, and 1% “other.” Foshay is under the leadership of Veronique Wills, a graduate of LAUSD and the University of California system. Foshay has a diverse faculty of approximately 150 teachers and support staff, a classified staff of 150, and a thriving Parent Center, with numerous parent volunteers. Many think Foshay is a charter or magnet school, due to: our many community partnerships; being characterized as a relatively “safe” campus with calm, helpful, and polite students; a school based Health Clinic; a welcoming Parent Center; our ability to provide travel abroad for our secondary students; before and after school day care for our elementary students, and several after-school programs such as Youth Services, LA Bridges, and USC Readers, as well as various high school athletic and academic teams. However, we are just a large urban neighborhood school, which is designed and operates a little differently than many District schools.
In 1992, not satisfied with the lack of success indicators for its students at Foshay Junior High, and on the verge of being taken over by the state, under the leadership of Howard Lappin and in collaboration with the school community, Foshay restructured to an Urban Learning Center. This educational reform model includes such features as a center for mental and physical health in the form of a school based health clinic, a Parent Center, on-going meaningful professional development, and a school which spans all the grades. This is why Foshay bears the name, James A. Foshay Learning Center. Foshay also became a LEARN school, which partners with community businesses in helping to create a more structured climate conducive to teaching and learning. The vehicle selected to move and sustain our restructuring efforts was School Based Management (SBM), which continues to be overwhelming supported by stakeholders and the principal every renewal period. Collaboration is the key in SBM, and remains part of our mission statement. As a result, the principal and the teacher union’s chapter chairperson continue to work collaboratively together to improve student achievement. A very well run School Site Council of 10 students/parents and 10 staff monitors our Single Plan for Student Achievement and the school budgets and state/district grants which support it.
The restructuring has been worth it! In 1996, the state recognized the middle school as a California Distinguished School, and, since 2000, Newsweek Magazine continues to include Foshay's high school in the Top American High Schools. Since the California High School Exit Exam was instituted, Foshay high school students have performed very well, exceeding District and state averages. Each year there is a large waiting list for Foshay’s full day Kindergarten, sixth grade, and ninth grade. Foshay currently has a school wide API (the state’s Academic Performance Index) of 645, although the elementary and high school test scores meet and in most cases surpass District and state scores. (Using the state’s API calculator, Foshay’s high school’s API was calculated at over 700 in 2008. The state’s API goal for all schools is 800 on a scale of 100 -1,000).
• The elementary, is a school of choice operating on a traditional calendar for 185 students, where enrollment is via a lottery system under the District’s Open Enrollment option.
• The middle school is the school of residence for children residing in the neighborhood. However, the immediate area is so dense in population, that there has not been enough room for all middle school age students for several years, even with a year-round calendar. Thus, for the past six years or so middle school students have been bused to less crowded schools. At one time, there were up to 500 students being “capped” to other schools. Now, there is less than 100, due to decreasing enrollment in the feeder elementary schools.
• Foshay's high school, is a “school of choice,” open only to its 8th grade class, who apply and are selected through lottery for approximately 150 - 180 freshman seats. General education, Intermediate and Advanced ESL students, as well as students with IEPs for resource and itinerant services may apply. The high school of approximately 650 students offers an alternative to surrounding large District high schools, as well as private and Charter schools. From its beginnings in 1996, Foshay’s High School was designed as a college preparatory educational experience, following the A-G requirements of the UC system and divided into 3 smaller distinct learning communities, which are career/college pathways or academies: Finance, Information Technology, and Health Careers. In addition, the design has always demanded that students take 4 years of mathematics starting with geometry. Emerging in the 2006-07 school year is a new 9th grade Academy to better “groom” the type of learner Foshay expects.
When Howard Lappin retired in August 2001, then assistant principal Veronique Wills, took over the helm as principal by a 99% approval rate from all stakeholder groups under an SBM waiver. The Foshay Learning Center model continues to produce many student achievement success indicators. In 2008, Foshay's schoolwide API (Academic Performance Indicator) reached 645, a 172 point growth since 2000. Each year, 92% of Foshay seniors graduate on time, and 95% of them were accepted to college or university! Using the state’s (4 year) graduation rate criteria, Foshay’s rate exceeds the District and state’s at 86%. Advanced Studies for Gifted students in the middle school has grown over the years, as well as an abundance of Advanced Placement classes for all high school students. This year, Foshay will introduce the IB – International Baccalaureate program at the middle school and elementary levels. Foshay continues to partner with the University of Southern California, for such programs as the Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI)/USC (college preparatory) program for over 240 seventh through twelfth grade students, college aged tutors, social work interns, youth sports, assistance with our music department and more.
Foshay’s high school continues to receive accolades, such as being recognized in the Top 1% of American high schools (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) by Newsweek magazine, and in 2004, the National Association of Secondary Student Principals and the Rand Corporation included Foshay as one of 12 “Breakthrough” high schools in the country (Braking Ranks I) – those with high minority, high poverty, high graduation rate, and high college acceptance rate. Foshay students continue to be accepted to top colleges and universities, such as: USC, Berkeley, Air Force Academy, Hampton, MIT, Morehouse, Yale, all the UC and CSU campuses and more. Generally, 92% of Foshay grads are accepted to college and 76% enroll in the Fall. Foshay’s college enrollment rate exceeds the District’s and the state’s.
Under Ms. Wills’ leadership, Robotics has been introduced in the middle school. In fact, Foshay entered a five year partnership with nearby Los Angeles Trade Technical College where our middle school students learn robotics and any 7th – 12th grade student can take certain academic or elective college courses in the college’s Steps Ahead Program, while they are off-track. In the past three years, AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college preparatory program, has surfaced in Foshay's middle school on all 3 tracks. Also surfacing within the past four years, is the opportunity for our middle and high school students to travel abroad, to such places as Costa Rica, England, Thailand, Italy, France, Spain, Thailand, and even, Yugoslavia, while our 5th graders have gone either to Washington D.C. every other year or weekend camping in Malibu Canyon. In addition, for the past two years the Department of Children Services and Foshay partnered to house “mPLAY,” an Academic Mentor Center on campus to better assist students in the Foster Care system. Foshay recently introduced Room 13, the international student run art gallery/workshop to the United States and LA Unified and at the high school level, NetGeneration Youth, a partnership with NASA (as the vision of Congresswoman Watson) in which high school students are cyber journalists and international students ambassadors. Prior to that Congresswoman Watson introduced us to Panwapa, where elementary students can interact electronically with “Sesame Street” like characters in other countries and learn world languages. Effective next year, we are introducing the International Baccalaureate program, to support our vision and our quest to help our students to become global citizens. These are a few of the many academic programs and/or partnerships at Foshay, that help reduce barriers to student success or add enrichment to their academic lives.
Fabulous Foshay has a dedicated staff, positive students eager to learn, a wonderful parent volunteer group, and great community partners. Like many Title I District secondary schools, Foshay is struggling to exit Program Improvement status which will occur once we meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress criteria. Although we make incremental positive growth in our test scores each year, under NCLB, it is quite a challenge to meet all 26 criteria for our school, with a student population of over three-thousand, 400 of whom are students with disabilities and 800 of whom are English Learners. Nevertheless, Foshay's ultimate goal is to become a High Performing School! Next year, 2009-10 will be Foshay’s last year as a year round school. Fall 2010 Foshay will open as a smaller K-12 school operating on the traditional calendar with no more than 1,895 students. Almost half of the middle school students will enroll in the new nearby Middle School #6, also to open in Fall 2010 as a traditional school of 1,400 students.
On the web at: http://www.foshaylc.org
Or, because we’re a year-round school, stop by anytime!
Fabulous Foshay celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2005! James A. Foshay Junior High School opened its doors for the first time in February 1925 with an enrollment of 1300 primarily white students. Today, Foshay is a multi-track, year-round Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Learning Center for over 3,100 Kindergarten through 12th grade students, 78% of whom are Latino, 21% African-American, and 1% “other.” Foshay is under the leadership of Veronique Wills, a graduate of LAUSD and the University of California system. Foshay has a diverse faculty of approximately 150 teachers and support staff, a classified staff of 150, and a thriving Parent Center, with numerous parent volunteers. Many think Foshay is a charter or magnet school, due to: our many community partnerships; being characterized as a relatively “safe” campus with calm, helpful, and polite students; a school based Health Clinic; a welcoming Parent Center; our ability to provide travel abroad for our secondary students; before and after school day care for our elementary students, and several after-school programs such as Youth Services, LA Bridges, and USC Readers, as well as various high school athletic and academic teams. However, we are just a large urban neighborhood school, which is designed and operates a little differently than many District schools.
In 1992, not satisfied with the lack of success indicators for its students at Foshay Junior High, and on the verge of being taken over by the state, under the leadership of Howard Lappin and in collaboration with the school community, Foshay restructured to an Urban Learning Center. This educational reform model includes such features as a center for mental and physical health in the form of a school based health clinic, a Parent Center, on-going meaningful professional development, and a school which spans all the grades. This is why Foshay bears the name, James A. Foshay Learning Center. Foshay also became a LEARN school, which partners with community businesses in helping to create a more structured climate conducive to teaching and learning. The vehicle selected to move and sustain our restructuring efforts was School Based Management (SBM), which continues to be overwhelming supported by stakeholders and the principal every renewal period. Collaboration is the key in SBM, and remains part of our mission statement. As a result, the principal and the teacher union’s chapter chairperson continue to work collaboratively together to improve student achievement. A very well run School Site Council of 10 students/parents and 10 staff monitors our Single Plan for Student Achievement and the school budgets and state/district grants which support it.
The restructuring has been worth it! In 1996, the state recognized the middle school as a California Distinguished School, and, since 2000, Newsweek Magazine continues to include Foshay's high school in the Top American High Schools. Since the California High School Exit Exam was instituted, Foshay high school students have performed very well, exceeding District and state averages. Each year there is a large waiting list for Foshay’s full day Kindergarten, sixth grade, and ninth grade. Foshay currently has a school wide API (the state’s Academic Performance Index) of 645, although the elementary and high school test scores meet and in most cases surpass District and state scores. (Using the state’s API calculator, Foshay’s high school’s API was calculated at over 700 in 2008. The state’s API goal for all schools is 800 on a scale of 100 -1,000).
• The elementary, is a school of choice operating on a traditional calendar for 185 students, where enrollment is via a lottery system under the District’s Open Enrollment option.
• The middle school is the school of residence for children residing in the neighborhood. However, the immediate area is so dense in population, that there has not been enough room for all middle school age students for several years, even with a year-round calendar. Thus, for the past six years or so middle school students have been bused to less crowded schools. At one time, there were up to 500 students being “capped” to other schools. Now, there is less than 100, due to decreasing enrollment in the feeder elementary schools.
• Foshay's high school, is a “school of choice,” open only to its 8th grade class, who apply and are selected through lottery for approximately 150 - 180 freshman seats. General education, Intermediate and Advanced ESL students, as well as students with IEPs for resource and itinerant services may apply. The high school of approximately 650 students offers an alternative to surrounding large District high schools, as well as private and Charter schools. From its beginnings in 1996, Foshay’s High School was designed as a college preparatory educational experience, following the A-G requirements of the UC system and divided into 3 smaller distinct learning communities, which are career/college pathways or academies: Finance, Information Technology, and Health Careers. In addition, the design has always demanded that students take 4 years of mathematics starting with geometry. Emerging in the 2006-07 school year is a new 9th grade Academy to better “groom” the type of learner Foshay expects.
When Howard Lappin retired in August 2001, then assistant principal Veronique Wills, took over the helm as principal by a 99% approval rate from all stakeholder groups under an SBM waiver. The Foshay Learning Center model continues to produce many student achievement success indicators. In 2008, Foshay's schoolwide API (Academic Performance Indicator) reached 645, a 172 point growth since 2000. Each year, 92% of Foshay seniors graduate on time, and 95% of them were accepted to college or university! Using the state’s (4 year) graduation rate criteria, Foshay’s rate exceeds the District and state’s at 86%. Advanced Studies for Gifted students in the middle school has grown over the years, as well as an abundance of Advanced Placement classes for all high school students. This year, Foshay will introduce the IB – International Baccalaureate program at the middle school and elementary levels. Foshay continues to partner with the University of Southern California, for such programs as the Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI)/USC (college preparatory) program for over 240 seventh through twelfth grade students, college aged tutors, social work interns, youth sports, assistance with our music department and more.
Foshay’s high school continues to receive accolades, such as being recognized in the Top 1% of American high schools (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008) by Newsweek magazine, and in 2004, the National Association of Secondary Student Principals and the Rand Corporation included Foshay as one of 12 “Breakthrough” high schools in the country (Braking Ranks I) – those with high minority, high poverty, high graduation rate, and high college acceptance rate. Foshay students continue to be accepted to top colleges and universities, such as: USC, Berkeley, Air Force Academy, Hampton, MIT, Morehouse, Yale, all the UC and CSU campuses and more. Generally, 92% of Foshay grads are accepted to college and 76% enroll in the Fall. Foshay’s college enrollment rate exceeds the District’s and the state’s.
Under Ms. Wills’ leadership, Robotics has been introduced in the middle school. In fact, Foshay entered a five year partnership with nearby Los Angeles Trade Technical College where our middle school students learn robotics and any 7th – 12th grade student can take certain academic or elective college courses in the college’s Steps Ahead Program, while they are off-track. In the past three years, AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college preparatory program, has surfaced in Foshay's middle school on all 3 tracks. Also surfacing within the past four years, is the opportunity for our middle and high school students to travel abroad, to such places as Costa Rica, England, Thailand, Italy, France, Spain, Thailand, and even, Yugoslavia, while our 5th graders have gone either to Washington D.C. every other year or weekend camping in Malibu Canyon. In addition, for the past two years the Department of Children Services and Foshay partnered to house “mPLAY,” an Academic Mentor Center on campus to better assist students in the Foster Care system. Foshay recently introduced Room 13, the international student run art gallery/workshop to the United States and LA Unified and at the high school level, NetGeneration Youth, a partnership with NASA (as the vision of Congresswoman Watson) in which high school students are cyber journalists and international students ambassadors. Prior to that Congresswoman Watson introduced us to Panwapa, where elementary students can interact electronically with “Sesame Street” like characters in other countries and learn world languages. Effective next year, we are introducing the International Baccalaureate program, to support our vision and our quest to help our students to become global citizens. These are a few of the many academic programs and/or partnerships at Foshay, that help reduce barriers to student success or add enrichment to their academic lives.
Fabulous Foshay has a dedicated staff, positive students eager to learn, a wonderful parent volunteer group, and great community partners. Like many Title I District secondary schools, Foshay is struggling to exit Program Improvement status which will occur once we meet the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress criteria. Although we make incremental positive growth in our test scores each year, under NCLB, it is quite a challenge to meet all 26 criteria for our school, with a student population of over three-thousand, 400 of whom are students with disabilities and 800 of whom are English Learners. Nevertheless, Foshay's ultimate goal is to become a High Performing School! Next year, 2009-10 will be Foshay’s last year as a year round school. Fall 2010 Foshay will open as a smaller K-12 school operating on the traditional calendar with no more than 1,895 students. Almost half of the middle school students will enroll in the new nearby Middle School #6, also to open in Fall 2010 as a traditional school of 1,400 students.
On the web at: http://www.foshaylc.org
Or, because we’re a year-round school, stop by anytime!
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