KPCC: Education News

Discrimination accusations fly after Tucson school district ends Mexican American Studies program

Mon, 07 May 2012 19:41:56 -0700

Carlos Galindo protests Monday, May 9, 2011 outside the Arizona Department of Education in Phoenix, along with other supporters of an ethnic studies program in the Tucson Unified School District. Credit: Matt York/AP

Federal education officials are investigating the Tucson Unified School District to determine whether Latinos were discriminated against during school board hearings on the Mexican American Studies program, reports the Fronteras Project.

The Department of Education’s Civil Rights division opened its investigation last month. Officials there declined an interview, but in a written response the agency said it is investigating whether the school board tried to limit Latinos’ participation at board meetings.

Tucson school officials say the January 10 meeting, where board members voted to end the Mexican American Studies program, was being investigated.

Like most meetings about the issue, this one was so packed that many watched from outside.

The complaint was filed by Silverio Garcia, executive director of the Phoenix nonprofit Civil Rights Center. He also complained that the school board failed to provide Spanish speakers with meeting materials in their own language.

The school district could lose federal funding if investigators find it violated civil rights. Ironically the district eliminated the program because of a threat from Arizona education authorities to cut funding if the program was not dropped.

Granada Hills Charter High School wins back-to-back national academic decathlon titles

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:46:13 -0700

Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The academic decathlon team at Granada Hills Charter High School has done it again — it’s won a second straight national title.

For more than 10 months, Granada Hills coach Nick Weber helped the nine-student team brush up on everything they needed to know on this year’s academic decathlon theme: The Age of Empire. And much like the kings they studied, they’ve come out victors.

"We are the national champions for the second year in a row," Weber said, "and in the process broke or shattered the all-time scoring record for a team."

They also had the first "Varsity" member (that’s decathlon talk for a C-average student) in the decathlon’s 30-year history to score more than 9,000 points. That student, senior Jimmy Wu, said he got lucky.

"I messed up my impromptu and the math quiz was really hard for me," Wu said, "but I guess I stuck to it."

The grueling two-day competition was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The team will be honored at a breakfast banquet at the high school on Monday morning.

After that, said Wu, it’ll be time to cram for AP exams.

Teaching the LA Riots at 2 LA city schools

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:30:21 -0700

Smoke rises as fires burn out of control near Vermont Street in Los Angeles on April 30, 1992. Riots erupted after L.A. police officers were acquitted in the beating of black motorist Rodney King. Credit: Paul Sakuma/AP

It has been 20 years since four police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, and L.A. erupted in race-fueled riots. Many in Los Angeles, including students who weren't born when the riots hit in April 1992, are reflecting on those days of anger, looting and destruction, asking why it happened and how to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Most history books used in L.A. schools end at the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and '60s, so 11th-grade history teacher Anthony Lawson, who was 10 at the time of the riots, has to improvise. Lawson teaches at Animo Locke High, a charter school. Everyone in the class is 16 or 17, black or Latino, and lives in the neighborhood, which isn't far from the flashpoint of the riots.

"What causes people to riot?" Lawson asks his class.

The answers start flying: hatred, injustice, racism.

Lawson shoots back: Were the rioters reacting to those causes, or were they just selfishly breaking the law?

Monica Revelo says all the rioters did was destroy their own community. "What do you get out of it?" she asks.

For classmates Artesia Cox, it's about being angry and being heard. "You get noticed," she says.

"But not in a good way," Revelo replies.

"It's just publicity," Cox says.

"You are acting like animals, so they are going to treat you like one," Revelo counters.

"They already did," Cox says.

Economic Conditions

These students say the conditions where they live, where the riots hit, haven't changed much.

Delshone Patton says the gangs are still a problem.

"People are still ... going out shooting little kids for no reasons," he says. "A 7-year-old got killed before; 5-year-olds get killed."

Manuel Amaya says economic conditions keep getting worse.

"A lot of things like poverty are still existing around here," he says. "A lot of liquor stores haven't been taken down. A lot of things that oppressed us back then ... we [are] still seeing them today."

Twenty miles west of Locke, at Pacific Palisades Charter High School, the same topics — poverty and racial tensions — are discussed. The setting couldn't be more different, though. Pali High sits on a bluff, just blocks from the beach, surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains and million-dollar homes.

Chris Lee teaches honors economics. His students are a mix of races and incomes and come from all over L.A., but in these pristine surroundings, poverty is taught from handouts.

Omeed Atlaschi raises his hand first.

"What I notice is that in the third graph was that the median household income for black and Latino people over the past 20 years has risen to the point where it was 20 years ago for white people," he says.

Lee notes: "Although everyone's income level has gone up, the gap between them has doubled."

Racism

Students move the discussion deeper. They want to talk about racism.

Amy Dersh, who is white, says outside of school she gets stared at when she's hanging out with black friends.

"I've noticed, you know, when I'm out and about with them, that we get looks," she says. "And if I'm with, let's say a black boy, and we're holding hands, especially we get looks then."

Another white student says that when he walks into the local pharmacy, his black friend has to leave his backpack at the door.

Lee tries to get the students to talk about preventing another riot. Most agree the answer is getting to know each other better.

Maddie Hausberg says having more integrated schools like Pali High would help.

"If everybody in Los Angeles, every school had this kind of education with different kids from different neighborhoods, different races, then I think that's one of the first things to prevent riots from happening," she says.

That message of racial and economic harmony was a bit harder to find back in South L.A. at Animo Locke High School.

Students agreed that everyone should pitch in, work together to build up their neighborhood, but they also said it's hard to rise out of poverty when it has persisted for decades.

"We're getting more poverty places across the country. That's what I'm saying. If there's going to be riots here now, I think it could spread onto everywhere," Manuel Amaya says.

"But if it goes that way, it wouldn't be called a riot anymore, it would be called a revolution," another student says.

Lawson, the teacher, says he hopes for so much more for his students, and if their future is to be brighter, he says, they need to know what happened in their community 20 years ago.

Despite objections, bill to speed-up teacher suspensions, dismissals for violent or immoral conduct advances

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:47:52 -0700

Protestors march near Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles, California February 6, 2012. Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy informed parents at a community meeting that the district is replacing the entire staff of Miramonte Elementary School in the wake of the arrests last week of two teachers on lewd conduct charges. Credit: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

The process of firing a public school teacher can take anywhere from a couple years to nearly a decade. All the while, the teacher collects a paycheck.

Senator Alex Padilla’s bill would get teachers who violate students out of the classroom and off they payroll faster, but the San Fernando Valley Democrat says his legislation also protects teachers who’ve done nothing egregious.

“To the concerns that this new process could be abused for teachers who are absent too much or tardy, or don’t submit their grades on time. I think it’s clearly distinguished in this bill.” Padilla told the Senate Education Committee Monday. “We’re speaking to crimes of sex, drugs and violence against children.”

Senate Minority leader Bob Huff questions that narrow focus. His bill would have also expedited the dismissal timeline for unprofessional conduct, everything from verbal or emotional abuse to poor performance.

The Diamond Bar Republican says it should be easier to dismiss any teacher who fails their students in significant ways.

“This expensive, tortured process and Miramonte underscore how we have put adult interests over the children’s interest.” Says Huff.

Senator Huff reminded the committee this isn’t the first time the Los Angeles Unified District has tried to get state lawmakers to make it easier to get rid of bad apples. Three years ago, Huff sponsored a bill that would have done that – but the measure was put on ice. His second attempt could end up the same way. Huff blames the influence of teacher unions.

Patricia Rucker with the California Teachers Association testified against the bills.
“Current law gives LA USD full leverage and full power.” Rucker says and she insists that law strikes the right balance between protecting students and protecting teachers.

“When somebody walks into your office and says we’re going to have to let you go, you have the right to be told why and you have the right to respond to that.” Rucker says.

The Senate Education Committee approved Padilla’s bill, but voted against Huff’s.
LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy, who supports both bills, says he’s grateful one is moving forward.

“I don’t think it’s too dramatic a statement to say that this is groundbreaking for us to actually decide that we’re going to put a stake in the ground and say that teachers who have egregiously harmed students, the system has a faster way for remove you from harming students again.” Deasy says.

Deasy says that’s a significant and long overdue change in California. He says that if you look at the numbers, you'll see that in the last nine years California school districts have initiated dismissals against more than 2,600 teachers, but only 83 have been let go so far.

Senator Padilla's bill SB 1530 would, In cases involving sex, violence or drug offenses:

Allow school boards to place an employee on unpaid leave after a motion of dismissal

Require appeal hearings be conducted by an Administrative Law Judge whose decision would be advisory to the school board

Allow evidence older than 4 years to be considered

Eliminate prohibition of dismissals during the summer months

Empower school boards to make the final decision on dismissal

Santa Monica High School orchestra plays Washington DC concerts

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:03:37 -0700

Santa Monica orchestra member Eli Brown Credit: Kitty Felde/KPCC

The Santa Monica High School orchestra visited Washington, D.C. this week for a pair of concerts.

The SaMo High students stopped at all the usual D.C. tourist spots, but since they’re also musicians, they also had meetings that amounted to master classes with instrumentalists from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Trumpet player Eli Brown particularly liked working with conductor Markand Thakar. "It was very interesting to see a different perspective and a different interpretation of the same music."

Violinist Ilana Greenberg said it illustrated what orchestra director Joni Swenson’s been telling her for years. "He had such different tempos," she said. "It taught us really how to watch, and you can’t just make the assumptions." Greenberg said Thakar had to stop numerous times during the first run through, as though he were saying, “Guys, I’m taking this a lot slower than you’re playing it.”

Harpist Mari Legagnoux performed twice on the trip. She said she thought it would be more stressful. "I think everyone’s pretty relaxed because we’ve played the music so many times."

The students say the days were long, running from 7 Friday morning to the White House, the Capitol, rehearsals and performances. "It’s kind of hectic," said Legagnoux, "especially at airports and unloading the bus and reloading the bus, so it takes a while to go anywhere."

But all three were impressed with the history of the city and the monuments that show up in movies, and even on U.S. currency. "You could never find that history in Santa Monica," said Greenberg. "It’s just not there."

Legagnoux got very quiet when she described her D.C. experience. "It just makes you feel kind of small, because you’re in the same place where our Founding Fathers walked."

The orchestra returns to Santa Monica on Sunday.

For-profit schools under fire for targeting veterans

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:40:35 -0700

Iraq war veteran Paul Rieckhoff (right), with Democratic Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Daniel Akaka of Hawaii and Patty Murray of Washington, introduces the GI benefit watchdog bill in Washington. Some lawmakers say for-profit schools are taking advantage of veterans and their educational benefits. Credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Hundreds of thousands of veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, eager to get an education under the new post-Sept. 11 GI Bill.

Many vets looking for a school find they are inundated by sales pitches from institutions hungry for their government benefits. Now, lawmakers are looking for ways to protect vets without narrowing their education choices.

Daniel Elkins, a legislative associate with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, recently did what a lot of vets do — he went to a site like gibill.com and answered a battery of questions about his educational goals and background. When prompted, he provided his email address and zip code.

The response, he says, was overwhelming.

"Within three to four days, I got in the excess of 70 phone calls and ... well over 300 emails," Elkins says.

The Role Of The 'Lead Generator'

That's because gibill.com is a commercial site run by a company called QuinStreet, a so-called "lead generator."

Lead generators like QuinStreet sell the information they collect primarily to for-profit colleges and universities. With their generous marketing budgets, for-profit schools can afford to pay for leads to guide them to vets considering enrolling in college.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway is leading a multistate investigation of for-profit colleges. He's scrutinizing the sites targeting veterans, trying to ensure they are "engaged in the type of consumer interaction that does not violate our various consumer protection acts in our respective states."

In other words, he's trying to assess whether the companies are pretending to be government websites. Some of the sites have disclaimers, but others do not.

Either way, once the lead generators get their hooks into potential students, they don't let go easily.

'Responsive And Nimble'

Veterans have been an important driver in the aggressive growth of for-profit schools in recent years. The Department of Veterans Affairs has already paid out nearly $18 billion in post-Sept. 11 education benefits.

Holly Petraeus, head of the Office of Servicemember Affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, says the size of this potential market has inspired for-profit schools to roll out the welcome mat.

Service members want portable courses, Petraeus says, so they won't have to drop out if they are deployed, sent for training exercises or assigned to a new base. "The for-profits were much more responsive and more nimble" in filling that need, she says.

Some members of Congress are worried that for-profit schools are ripping off the government by luring students into programs that seldom lead to good jobs. Lawmakers have even asked the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to trademark terms like "GI Bill" so commercial sites cannot use the words to gain veterans' trust.

Jim Sweizer is vice president for military programs at the American Public University System, an online, for-profit school with 65,000 military students. He says APUS stopped paying for leads collected from curious vets long ago.

"We found that the leads that we get from these third-party lead generators really are shoppers ... not serious students," he says.

Lawmakers Consider Cracking Down

Concern about the lead generators' sales tactics has prompted Congress to explore tighter limits on the public funds that can go to for-profit colleges.

But Sweizer says limiting government funding would just hurt the schools that are trying to deal honestly with vets.

Instead, he says, schools that don't deliver what they promise should be punished.

"I'll leave it up to the lawmakers to decide what those sanctions should be," Sweizer says. "But that's who they should go after ... [not] an entire industry or segment of schools."

Sweizer says he would like to see the VA become the ultimate college guidance counselor to vets.

The department does have tons of pointers on its website for veterans seeking higher education. But with a limited budget — and 435,000 currently enrolled students — the VA is-hard pressed to compete with lead generators and aggressive commercial pitches.

Moreno Valley school board takes action against member accused of rape and pimping charges

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:18:41 -0700

Moreno Valley Unified School District attorney Christopher Keeler explains options board has to restrict jailed trustee Mike Rios. Credit: Steven Cuevas/KPCC

Members of the Moreno Valley school district unanimously agreed Tuesday to censure trustee Mike Rios after he was charged with 11 counts of rape and pimping.

Rios is being held in a county lockup on $250,000 bail. The board also plans to seek a restarting order barring Rios from school property should he be released.

The 42-year-old school board trustee is accused of trying to lure multiple young women and girls into prostitution. He’s also accused of raping two of the adult victims. One of the minors he allegedly met online, another while walking down the street. Neither are Moreno Valley public school students.

The board’s Tuesday meeting was packed with students and parents seeking his dismissal. Under state law, Rios is allowed to remain on the board unless convicted of a felony.

“We certainly recognize that Mr. Rios has not been convicted of anything however the charges against him are deeply disturbing,” says Moreno Valley Unified attorney Chris Keeler. He says the board could also remove Rios if he misses up to three months of meetings.

Ruthee Goldkorn of the Democratic Club of Moreno Valley is leading a recall effort against Rios. “This will give the community the opportunity to decide whether or not this is the person they want to vote for,” said Goldkorn while addressing the board from her wheelchair.

“Maybe your bylaws will be in effect. I like the one that says you can removed if you no longer live in the district. He doesn’t! He lives in jail that’s his address!” said Goldkorn to an outburst of applause and laughter.

Attorney Chris Keeler laid out several other options.

“The first being a censure. The most serious statement of disapproval and reprimand that a board can give one of its members,” said Keeler.

The board approved that action by a vote of 4 to 0. It also voted to seek a restraining order against Rios barring him school district property and requested his immediate resignation.

Rios also faces attempted murder charges in a separate case. He told the Riverside Press Enterprise in a jailhouse interview that he’s the target of a political vendetta. His next court hearing is set for later this month.

California public school teacher pension fund gap: $64 billion

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:51:21 -0700

The headquarters of the California State Teachers Retirement System in Sacramento, California. Credit: CalSTRS

A new report says the pension fund for California’s public school teachers is facing a much bigger hole than anyone expected — it's ballooned to $64 billion.

Investments by the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) generated a whopping 23 percent return in the last fiscal year. But one good year can’t make up for 2009, when the market crashed and the fund lost nearly a quarter of its value.

Deputy Chief Executive Ed Derman said the fund would now have to earn 10 percent every year, for 30 years, to meet its pension obligations.

"The situation has gotten better, but we are still in a situation where we cannot reasonably ever expect to invest our way out of it," Derman said. "So contributions would have to increase in order to fully fund the system."

According to Derman, those contributions will need to rise to 13 percent of teachers’ payroll over the next 30 years.

The state Legislature has to approve any changes to the contribution rate. The last time they did, 12 years ago, they cut the state’s contribution from 4.6 percent to 2percent.

Riverside County considers $15 million pledge to UC Riverside med school to help it win accreditation

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:22:10 -0700

UC Riverside Credit: z-Steve/Flickr

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday will consider pledging $15 million to the UC Riverside medical school. The financial aid should help the school attain accreditation and stay on track for opening in 2013.

The medical school was supposed to welcome its first students by this fall, but those plans were dashed after state lawmakers withdrew a $10 million commitment last year.

Without that funding, the school lost any chance of attaining accreditation — and without that, it would likely lose out on millions of dollars in federal grants. But the pending financial commitment from Riverside County should help UCR win accreditation later this year.

The county’s proposal calls for the money in installments over the next eight years. County leaders say the financial assistance would cement a bond between county medical services and the medical school.

Supervisors designated the Riverside County Regional Medical Center as the medical school’s primary teaching hospital. County clinics would also serve as teaching sites.

UCR hopes to welcome its first 50 students in summer 2013.

New head of $6 billion community college construction program

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:58:11 -0700

Los Angeles City College, one of nine colleges affected by construction. Credit: jim61773/Flickr

The new head of the L.A. Community College District’s $6 billion construction program is set to address the district’s board publicly for the first time on Wednesday.

College administrators fired the construction program’s previous executive director amid news reports and audits that revealed tens of millions of mismanaged dollars.

The bond-funded construction program includes new facilities and improvements at Los Angeles City College, Pierce College and the district’s six other campuses.

The community college district has put its construction program on hold as it studies whether there will be enough money to finish planned construction projects.

A spokesman for the district says newly hired executive director James O’Reilly is expected to detail his vision for the construction program at the board of trustees meeting at Mission College on Wednesday.

O’Reilly has worked for Pasadena-based construction and engineering firm Parsons, and was a key player in LAUSD's massive school construction project.

Santa Monica College Board votes to postpone 2-tier tuition plan

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:07:16 -0700

Outside an emergency meeting called by the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees to discuss the two-tier pricing plan. These demonstrators say they support the decision to raise tuition on some courses, saying it's the only way to keep the doors open. A few days earlier, Protests against the plan ended in scuffles with police, including some protesters being pepper sprayed. April 6, 2012. Credit: Vanessa Romo/KPCC

Following Tuesday’s pepper-spraying incident and a request from the Community Colleges chancellor, Santa Monica College trustees voted unanimously to freeze their controversial two-tier pricing system.

Before asking trustees to reverse their decision to implement a two-tier system for pricing classes over the summer, SMC President Chui Tsang recalled his own experience as an immigrant community college student who spoke very little English.

Tsang acknowledged he benefitted from a public system that offered a variety of readily available classes and was able to transfer to UC Berkeley in just two years. Given recent cuts and massive overcrowding, that path would be very difficult for today's students.

"I know how important it was to me and the cost I would have incurred. We want to make that option available to you," said Tsang. "We need to do what we can to allow you [to] finish your education so that you can have the same opportunity that I had."

Tsang said it’s unfortunate that students misunderstood the board's intentions in deciding to implement the two-tier pilot program. That, he said, would have added 50 classes over the summer.

Philosophy Professor Amber Katherine said that class cost increases are like abortion: Nobody's for it, but sometimes it's necessary.

But about 40 students spoke out against the plan, saying it would have made some of the most popular classes, like English and Math, more than four times more expensive than others at the school.

This time around, Tsang said, the Board would follow usual governance procedures and include all stakeholders before making a new decision.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that the Board had voted to approve freezing a two-tier tuition plan before the Board had voted.

This story has been updated.

Santa Monica College board to hold emergency public meeting on two-tier plan

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 07:45:03 -0700

The Santa Monica College Board of Trustees will hold an emergency public meeting at 10:30 a.m. today to discuss California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott's request that the college put on hold its plan to offer a new tier of higher-cost courses this summer.

The program calls for about 50 new courses this summer at $180 a unit — about five times the cost of other course offerings. College officials say that’s the only way they can provide enough courses for students amid state budget cuts.

Campus police pepper-sprayed some students who protested the program at a college trustees’ meeting Tuesday night. The next morning, state community colleges chancellor Jack Scott called Santa Monica College president Chui Tsang and asked him to delay the two-tier tuition plan while the state Attorney General examines whether the plan is legal.

"I think that would be wise, but of course that’s only my advice I am not the president," Scott said. "The President Chui Tsang answers directly to the Santa Monica elected board of trustees. He made it clear and I understand they would have to make that decision.”

Santa Monica College spokesman Bruce Smith says administrators still believe they’re on solid legal ground after the phone exchange with Scott.

“Dr. Tsang was very appreciative of the call. They had a great conversation," Smith said. "The college is going to take that request under full consideration. As of this point there is no change we’re moving ahead with the program.”

Students who oppose that program say they worry the college will create courses they won’t be able to afford. Unlike the public Cal State and University of California systems, community colleges operate with open enrollment. State chancellor Jack Scott is proud of that, and he doesn’t want it to change.

“The biggest issue right here is whether or not we are favoring those who have greater income over those who don’t," Scott said. "That’s where I think it’s problematic.”

Pricing is another issue. The state legislature usually determines the cost of community college courses; then those schools return revenue to Sacramento. In this case, student fees would pay directly for the higher-priced courses, and Santa Monica College trustees would determine their cost. Scott recognizes why they want to do that — but he wishes they wouldn’t.

“California is not providing sufficient funds for everybody to get classes, however this has to be done by the legislature and not the local board of trustees," Scott said. "This could be very problematic if you stop and think about all the boards of trustees doing this.”

Cuts to the state education budget have prompted Santa Monica College to cut more than a thousand course sections in four years. Under the governor’s budget plan the college could lose another $5 million if California voters do not approve a November ballot initiative to raise taxes.

For more details on the program and continued updates check out KPCC's Pass/Fail education blog.

Tami Abdollah can be reached via email and on Twitter (@latams).

UCLA accidentally direct deposits duplicate financial aid checks to some students

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:23:11 -0700

Credit: patriciaj102/Flickr

UCLA issued duplicate financial aid checks to about 7,000 students by mistake last week, but now those students have to give it back.

In some cases, this meant windfalls of anywhere from $400 to $10,000 or more. About a thousand students returned the money immediately after they noticed they’d gotten more financial aid than they’d expected for the spring quarter.

The university says it e-mailed students Thursday about the error, reportedly caused by a communication glitch between two student billing systems. Since then, UCLA Student Financial Services has recovered about 99 percent of the duplicate payments.

Students who do not return their payments will not be allowed to register for classes in the coming month, and a hold will be played on all their university accounts.

The campus controller has issued a statement of apology for any inconvenience, confusion and frustration this situation may have caused students.

'We don't fight with our teachers union': Arcadia Unified superintendent on why parcel tax passed

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:45:47 -0700

Arcadia High School, one of the many that can look forward to benefiting from the city's parcel tax. Credit: Mae Ryan/KPCC

The final vote count became official last week for Arcadia Unified’s parcel tax ballot measure. In a vote-by-mail ballot, the parcel tax yes votes reached the two-thirds ballot threshold by 58 votes.

The $228 per parcel, yearly tax is expected to generate about $3.5 million annually for Arcadia schools.

"Like all school districts in the state of California, we’ve been cut," said Arcadia Unified Superintendent Joel Shawn. "We felt that our community was ready to stabilize our funding, so we went out to get some money that we could depend on."

In recent years, amid severe funding cuts from the state, more than half a dozen L.A. County school districts have placed similar parcel taxes on the ballot to generate funds. Most of the efforts — including those in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena and Santa Monica — have failed.

Why did the parcel tax pass in Arcadia? "There’s an incredible relationship between us and the city," said Shawn. "We do not fight with our teachers union, and our other unions. We work collaboratively. And I think all those things added up for why it passed here. Why that may or may not transfer to other places, I really don’t know."

Arcadia Unified’s 10,000-student, largely upper middle-class district is different from the 650,000 and mostly working-class L.A. Unified School District.

"We built on the support we know we already have for our schools," said Shawn. "This community has been incredibly gracious. They understand the value of a high-performing school district and we were able to go out and say that this is an opportunity for them to help us continue to be excellent and not be victimized by Sacramento cuts."

In November, L.A. Unified voters will go to the polls for a nearly $298 per parcel tax that could generate $255 million yearly for the school district. Yet this and other parcel tax campaigns could hold lessons for L.A. Unified’s effort.

One more reason Arcadia voters supported the parcel tax: "We know people feel and believe that their property values are connected to the value of the school district," Shawn said.

CSU, UC cuts lead SoCal students to consider black colleges in the South

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:34:15 -0700

One student begins filling out his transfer application for Tuskegee University. Credit: Michael Juliano/KPCC

As a noon-time bell tolled on Thursday, dozens of students milled about college recruitment tables along a walkway at El Camino College in Torrance.

Nearly two dozen were here, including perhaps the most well known black institution of higher learning, Howard University, as well as Dillard University, Grambling State University, Xavier College and Talladega College. Each had colorful cloth or vinyl banners boasting school colors and logos.

Southern California is a major recruitment stop for historically black universities. El Camino College in Torrance is taking advantage of that. It has a new guaranteed transfer agreement with many black schools.

Nearly a quarter of El Camino’s students are African American. Many are curious about the southern colleges, founded in the 1800s to give African Americans a shot at a college education. Second year student Destiny Johnson asked a lot of questions at the Howard University table.

"Kappas? Alumnis? Like step, all of that, they’re good? I don’t want to get just into books, books, books, I’ll go crazy, crazy, crazy," Johnson asked Howard alumus Bradford Benham, who lives in L.A. and works in film production. Benham tells Johnson that Howard was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. Johnson says Cal State and University of California campuses don’t excite her as much as Howard University.

"My goal is physician assistant, this school is for medical and science and I know that’s somewhere I want to be where its an excellent record of that," she said.

Veteran El Camino College counselor Elaine Moore organized this college fair. She said student interest in black colleges and universities is on the rise here. She’s filed 50 student transfers so far this year. Moore worked with those schools to create a unique transfer agreement. It guarantees admission, if the student meets the grade and course requirements.

"It’s a very critical time right now because of the lack of funding in California higher education and the decrease in the number of students admitted from high school and admitted from the community college to the Cal States and the UCs in the state," Moore said.

And that’s pushing more Southern California students to consider a historically black school. Alumnus John Terry proudly wears a deep purple golf shirt and baseball cap with the logo of Prairie View A&M in Texas. He’s pitching the small campus to two El Camino students majoring in sociology and nursing.

"The professors know you, it’s not like you’re a number. My wife went to USC, she was in this big class, you know 300 people, who knows you. Nobody. But if you go to one of these small schools, when you get into your major, maybe 15 to 20 kids," Terry told the students.

The nursing student, Victoria Villalpando, is very interested in the school, mostly because she grew up in California and wants to leave for college.

"It doesn’t matter if its African American or any type of school. I went to UCR and it was all Latinos, and I was like, so what. I could go to any college I want, it doesn’t matter if it’s a black college, a Latino college, an Asian college, you know, college is college," Villalpando said.

James Minor, with the Southern Education Foundation, said integration, the economy and the rise of for-profit colleges have all cut into enrollment numbers at black schools. Now they have to find new ways to fulfill their post Civil War mission.

"The large majority of them were established at that time to provide higher education opportunities for African Americans and they produced the black middle class, according to some, a generation of doctors, lawyers, school teachers, etc.," Minor said.

So now they come to places like El Camino College, making that promise to students of all races.

Southern California teens compete to go to national August Wilson monologue contest

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:15:04 -0700

August Wilson. Credit: Huntington Theater Company/Flickr

When he died seven years ago, critics praised African-American playwright August Wilson as a giant of American theater. Now, his followers worry that time will fade his influence.

That’s one reason L.A.'s preeminent theater organization, Center Theater Group, decided to host the Southern California Regionals of the national August Wilson Monologue Competition.

The 15 regional finalists will participate in four master classes lead by the theater group to help refine their performance skills in preparation for the March regional finals. The top three regional finalists will receive $500, $250 and $100 scholarships, as well as compete in the May finals in New York.

For several months, more than a dozen teens from across the Southland have polished their performances at a rehearsal room across the street from downtown L.A.'s Music Center. Many of these teens knew little about the playwright, let alone the power of his monologues.

"They’ve been described as arias," says Leslie Johnson, Center Theater Group director of education. "They really are these soaring moments in his plays where characters have an opportunity to bear witness."

Johnson is one of the theater staffers teaching the 15 high school students about the cycle of 10 plays that comprise Wilson's master work. Each play is set in a different decade of the 20th century.

Tenth-grader Kayla Matthews picked a monologue from the 1987 play “The Piano Lesson.” In the monologue, the main character Berniece, a widow in 1930s Pittsburgh, forcefully protects a piano that represents her family’s history.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Matthews waited on a couch reading the monologue on her iPad outside a Center Theater Group rehearsal room. The theater's casting director Erika Sellin and veteran actress Andi Chapman welcomed her to a cavernous rehearsal room.

Both gave the teenager tips about walking onto the stage and how to establish her presence on the night of the performance.

Matthews delivered the monologue. Chapman stopped to help after the student forgot her lines for the second time.

"There’s no right or wrong, it’s just truth," Chapman told her. "What the truth is for you. OK? I just want you to be truthful, that’s all I’m asking, and really talk to Avery and you’ll be fine."

Kayla Matthews knew little about August Wilson until her drama teacher at a West L.A. private school told her about the monologue contest. The theater offers the students master classes like this one, along with instruction on character study and vocal delivery. Professional actors, writers and directors help the students.

Down the hallway, some of them are deep into an enunciation exercise.

Many of the participating teens attend performing arts high schools. Johnson says the theater's goal is to create "Wilsonian soldiers."

"So that we have an army of young performers, and young theater lovers, who know about this playwright, who demand his kind of work and maybe [will] inspire a new August Wilson to rise up from the ranks of the next generation," Johnson said.

That army could include Pablo Lopez, an 11th grader at Ramon Cortines High School in downtown L.A.

Lopez says he connected with the monologue from the August Wilson play “Jitney.” A character named Youngblood doesn’t let his social class keep him down.

"He’s a worker and he’s trying to get his mark in the city," Lopez said, "and my dad, he came to the United States, he came as a teenager and he worked his way up to being a principal in LAUSD."

Wilson died nearly seven years ago, Johnson said, but he'd be happy that the plays he wrote about African-American life and struggles in the United States are read by youth of all ethnicities.

Lopez and the other students will tap into everything they’ve learned and step into the spotlight at the Mark Taper Forum Monday to deliver their August Wilson monologues.

A panel of judges that includes actors Louis Gossett Junior and Charlayne Woodard will pick three to proceed to the national competition in two months at the August Wilson Theater in New York City.

UC Riverside hosts Harry Moore Memorial Solo Piping and Drumming Competition

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:02:26 -0700

UC Riverside Pipe and Drum Band Credit: Steven Cuevas/KPCC

Musicians from across the western United States are gathering in Riverside this weekend for the third annual Harry Moore Memorial Solo Piping and Drumming Competition.

About 60 pipers, drummers and dancers will compete in solo and ensemble events. The competition is named after the University of California, Riverside pipe band's first drum sergeant, Harry Moore, who died three years ago.

"I’ve won and lost in every single grade," says Ed Best, who was one of his proteges. "So I try to pass on what I did when I won and try to ignore the things I did when I lost, and basically let them learn from my mistakes."

Best is a competition judge, as well as the UC Riverside pipe band’s drum instructor. The band formed 12 years ago when the school wanted its own pipe ensemble to spice up sporting events. Some of its musicians are competing this weekend.

"This is a music competition, not a 'How many notes are you playing?' competition," according to Best. "It always comes back to who’s playing the best music. Not to show off, not to play a cool lick, not to throw as many things as you can in there."

The daylong Harry Moore Memorial Solo Piping and Drumming Competition takes place at the Canyon Crest Country Club in Riverside.

LA whiz kids compete in DC to fight hackers

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:40:39 -0700

Members of the Thundercats team check their laptops in a hallway. Credit: Kitty Felde/KPCC

A cyber security team from Highland Park is in Washington, D.C. this week, fighting to make the Web safer from hackers. The students from Franklin High School are competing in the CyberPatriot finals.

This group calls themselves "Thundercats," after a superhero cartoon from before they were born. The Franklin High squad is the first majority female team to compete in the finals.

Patricia Hernandez, one of the dozen Franklin High students competing in the national CyberPatriot finals, says, "We can be powerful just like them. But instead of their superpowers, we have codes and commands and anti-virus."

The two Jasmines on the team, Jasmine Cao and Jasmine Talavera, peer into a laptop, furiously typing away. Talavera says the object of the five-hour competition is to fend off a team of hackers trying to break into their computer system.

"What they’ll try to do is try to log in using our passwords by guessing," according to Talavera. "So what we have to do, number one thing, is change our passwords."

This is the first trip outside California for much of the team. Northrop Grumman, the largest cyber-security contractor for the federal government, paid their way.

That company’s Diane Miller says that last summer, the company hired nearly a dozen CyberPatriots as summer interns; this summer, it’s looking for 30 more.

"There’s so much talent at the high school level," she says. Northrop Grumman wanted to find a way "to teach cyber security, and excite the kids about careers in science, technology, engineering and math."

The Thundercats practiced after school and on weekends to get this far. They’re already winners — everybody gets to keep the laptops they’ve worked with all year.

But there’s more at stake than stuff, says Jasmine Talavera. "If we really win this competition, we’ll show that one of the lowest schools in L.A. can really be the best."

She imagines the conversation she'll have back home. "'You? L.A.? Highland Park? Nah,'" says Talavera. "And if we win this competition, I can walk up to them and say 'Yes, we won that competition.' "

Nearly 800 schools from across the country entered the CyberPatriot competition.

LA Unified school for drop outs serves the most needy, but is threatened by cuts

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:40:44 -0700

City of Angels High School teacher Jeff Pott. Credit: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC

Among the many funding cuts approved recently by L.A. Unified, there’s an item that slashes some of the money for special campuses that serve students who are at risk — kids on the verge of dropping out and some who already have. Students and teachers alike praise these schools.

City of Angels High School enrolls 2,400 students, not at one large campus but in a constellation of 22 sites across the school district.

"We’re in the MacArthur Park neighborhood, not too far from the Pico Union and this is a leased site," says teacher Jeff Pott as he opens the door at the end of a long hallway in an office building just west of downtown Los Angeles. It looks like a clean office with bookshelves packed with novels and encyclopedias, and a bullpen area with half a dozen new Apple desktop computers. On this day there are about 10 students at any one time, several at a time come and go. Each has a unique path that’s led to this school.

"I wasn’t doing well with other students," student Taylor Papalagi said, "because I was always distracted by them instead of doing my own work. Instead of doing my homework I was off at the park or something graffitiying."

Yanil Mejia’s sister enrolled in independent study, "and then I saw how she would work at home and I just decided also enroll and work independently. It actually helped because a little after I enrolled, my father got imprisioned, he went to prison, and I actually didn’t want to be around people, I just wanted to be at home and Mr. Pott actually helped me because I kind of fell into this depression and I really didn’t want to go to school anymore."

"Once I got into 10th grade I decided that public school was not for me so dropped out," Luis Bonilla said about Canoga Park High School. He said indifferent teachers and “thug” students pushed him out.

"I didn’t feel comfortable at all plus I lost most of my friends, they moved on to a different school so I felt kind of alone," Bonilla said.

The goal for each one is to earn a high school diploma that’ll lead to college or career training.

"We get kids who are, have problems at regular campuses because of their poverty in their family, lack of parental support, lack of language skills. We get kids who are bullied. We get a fair number of gay and lesbian students who have been picked on at their local school, lots of teen parents come here because we can be flexible with our timing which allows kids to take care of their parental responsibilities," Pott said.

This is how City of Angels High School works: Students take three classes at a time and get assigned 20 to 30 hours of homework each week. They work at their own pace but have to meet a teacher once a week to show they’ve done the work.

That’s what’s happening in teacher Brent Russell’s office with student Taylor Papalagi as he uses a red dry erase marker to write out an algebra lesson.

"There was never that tough love that I needed and I got it here, City of Angels," Bonilla said about the rigor of teachers here compared to those at his previous, large, crowded campus.

Teacher Jeff Pott says some students can’t handle the independence of City of Angels High School and drop out. However, those who stick with it succeed.

"The work is rigorous, it’s complex and they’re doing a lot of it on their own, since its independent study but they have the benefit of having personal interaction with their teachers so any difficulty they can work with their teacher one on one," Pott said.

This is worth repeating. Pott says students here succeed because of the individualized attention from teachers. Under current L.A. Unified budget cuts City of Angels High School would have to cut enrollment by 400 students and would lose 15 teachers.

Student Yanil Mejia has a message for the district: "That they should also invest in this and they shouldn’t be cutting off budgets and a lot of kids benefit from this, they get the opportunity to succeed in life, they’re not just completely shut out," she said.

L.A. Unified administrators argue they’ve cut to the bone and carry out these reductions reluctantly.

Rule changes could affect federal financial aid eligibility

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:02:21 -0700

Adult students will be the most effected by the new rules, which state that no high school diploma means no federal aid for college. Credit: Patricia Nazario/KPCC

The current federal budget will change some students’ eligibility for financial aid. New requirements for the Pell Grant program will also change the way non-traditional students pay for college.

Financial aid supervisor Lisa Navarro says she’s seen it thousands of times. Students show up at Mount San Jacinto College on registration day with no high school diploma and no GED. But they still enroll in college-level courses and even qualify for federal financial aid to help pay for them.

"We find that we have older students that come back and attend school [...] that never graduated high school or got a GED ‘cause years ago, they quit and went to work," says Navarro. "So it’s not our younger population — we find that it’s our middle-aged students."

They could do it one of two ways: taking by the Ability to Benefit test (ABT) — a standardized assessment of basic skills like reading, writing, and math — or by successfully completing six credits.

Navarro says that gave students access to the Pell Grant, as well as "federal work study and student loans when we had them."

But budget cuts in federal financial aid programs mean these “prodigal” students will be out of luck starting July 1.

In the 2012 academic year, no high school diploma plus no GED equals no financial aid. No more ABT.

Although the new rules will apply to all college students who seek federal help, those in community college will feel the effects most. Especially immigrants and students who may not be pursuing four-year degrees but who want to develop new job skills. The colleges that enroll them could lose out, too.

California is compounding the effects of federal cuts to education with its own budget reductions and the elimination of adult education programs that traditionally offered GED prep classes.

"The ones who have already taken [ABT], before the July 1 deadline [in] 2012 will kind of be grandfathered in," Navarro assured current students, "so they don’t have to worry."

The Pell Grant program will also reduce students’ eligibility from 18 semesters to 12, and from two grants a year to one.