What do you think about Los Angeles spending $1 billion on
iPads, money taken from school construction bonds approved by
voters for……school construction. The iPads will be obsolete in
3-4 years. The bonds won’t be paid off for 25 years. Really
disturbing, but here is a hopeful comment, suggesting that there is
some oversight: “●●smf responds: I am a member of that selfsame
bond oversight committee and I voted to approve this iPad for
Everyone deal as a pilot at some 30 plus schools. Only that and
nothing more. “Notwithstanding grandstanding from he
superintendent’s office nothing further has been approved by
anyone. The Apple contract purchases iPads for every student ONLY
IF AND WHEN the Bond Oversight Committee and Board of Education
approves Phases Two and Three. There is is no autopilot. “Your
concerns for your students at your school are our concerns. We on
the bond committee cannot by law buy your school new library books
or arts or choral music programs. Deputy Superintendent Aquino may
wax poetic about how the iPads will give your school art and music
programs; like all good salespeople he believes it what he’s
selling. But I don’t buy that balderdash than any more than you do.
“Our kids don’t need arts applications, they need Arts Teachers.
“We don’t need music apps or dance apps or drama apps – we need
Dance Teachers and Music Teachers and Drama Teachers. We need
Teacher Librarians in secondary and Elementary Librarians in in the
early grades. “And Health Teachers and Nurses and
Counselors.”
Are there large classes in Los Angeles Unified School
District? Some commenters say yes, some say no. The average for the
district does not answer the question, because students with
special needs may be in a class of 5 or have a teacher assigned
only to her because of the severity of her disability.
The LAUSD board recently passed a resolution directing Superintendent John
Deasy to reduce class size, but
he said on a radio program that he would ignore the
directive. Instead, he is buying iPads for all students and
spending more money on Common Core. Apparently the $1 billion
produced by Prop 30 will be used for Common Core, not for class
size reduction.
What do teachers and parents say? Here is a comment
by a parent who is also a teacher: My son’s sixth grade
academic classes at Hale Charter Academy (an affiliated LAUSD
charter) have 44 students in them. Yes, I said 44. In math,
English, social studies, and science. He is in the School for
Advanced Studies and the school does not turn away any qualified
SAS students. I am not arguing with their policy, because they are
doing the best they can. But that class size is RIDICULOUS! He is
not allowed to bring his backpack to classes because there is not
enough room. I also would like to see
statistics at the individual class level, because so many factors
mask these large class sizes. For example, we have at least six
certificated teachers who are out of classroom. A Title I
coordinator, two discipline deans who are elected from the staff, a
bilingual coordinator, a college counselor, a career counselor and
now, a “Core” math coach (Common Core? I haven’t found out yet).
Though most of these people do not teach at all (I think one of
them teaches one class) they are still counted in our student to
teacher ratios, which makes class sizes look small.
Another extenuating factor is that we have small learning
communities, and that creates some smaller classes. That means
other classes have to be bigger. We are
co-located with a great magnet program. Magnets have a “norm” of 34
to 1, while the rest of us have 42.5-1. So the magnet hired a
teacher this year, while we lost one, and our class sizes are
already huge. Administrators have to make very
difficult decisions, but there should be an actual cap on
individual class sizes. Teachers who speak out are not popular on
campus. The governor’s budget, I believe, does away completely with
any class size mandates, leaving that to “local control.” Trust me,
that can and will be abused. Do you want YOUR kid in classes with
40-50 students, and more? None of us do. I,
too, would like to see some real numbers on class size. And I don’t
think we will get that from LAUSD or the UTLA. So I think there
needs to be a place where teachers can post their actual,
individual class sizes. I had a journalism
class with 55 students last year and complained to no avail. It’s
even worse with electives…they can have 55 students, according to
my school. And they often do.
A letter from a teacher in Los Angeles about the decision to spend $1 billion to buy iPads.
“How could the bond oversight committee actually approve this deal when we (a specific school in LAUSD) still have classrooms with chalkboards, desks from the 1950s, an internet infrastructure that constantly lets us down – we can NEVER play video because there is never enough bandwidth, a library with a book collection that has an average copyright date of 1989, only 4 library books per pupil, 10 computers in the library with an average age of 2006, 48 students in a 10th grade English class, 45 students in a biology class, no art classes, no vocal music classes. What we could use instead of ipads is every classroom is a smart classroom, new desks that kids can actually fit into, multiple computer labs, a new, larger, tech friendly library with at least 14 books per pupil, art classes, wood shop, computer labs, the list goes on. What is going to happen is before the entire roll out of ipads, LAUSD is going to realize either by their own admission or a lawsuit that this experiment is not going to work. Also, voters within the boundaries of LAUSD are never going to vote for another bond measure. Therefore, this specific school will not be getting ipads nor new construction, new books, new desktop computers anytime soon.”
A reader wants to know the answer:
“The LA Unified School District is going to spend $1 billion on iPads at a cost of $678 per device, more than the tablets cost in stores. They come with “partially developed” educational software and are being paid for by school construction bonds.
“There are currently over 16,000 repair requests across the District that have yet to receive a response. The Venice High visitor bleachers at its football field have been collapsing for years and are dangerous. Many schools need their air conditioning systems fixed. Ever try to teach literature to 40 kids in a non-air conditioned classroom? I guess it doesn’t matter now because LAUSD and the educational reform movement don’t care much about literature anyway.
“School construction bonds? Exactly which part of a school’s construction is an iPad? This deal reeks of collusion and kickbacks. Three LAUSD Board members own Apple stock. How on earth does the Board accept a deal for these devices that doesn’t include a discount? I mean they’re buying 660,000 units.
“Apple’s Mac Rumors site recommends NOT BUYING this current iPad edition because “updates are coming soon.” The bureaucrats at LAUSD responsible for this deal should go to work at the Pentagon. Maybe when this boondoggle is finished, they can sign a deal with Kohler or American Standard to replace all the toilets in LAUSD schools.
“Why hasn’t anyone on the LA School Board investigated this? Why hasn’t United Teachers of Los Angeles investigated this? Why hasn’t the LA Times or the LA Daily News investigated it?
“If I were still teaching, I’d feel as if I were working in an asylum.”
Howard Blume reports in this morning’s Los Angeles Times that the school district’s $500 million purchase of iPads did not include the keyboards that will be necessary when the students use them to take standardized tests. The district has also committed to spend another $500 million to install wireless Internet in every school. The iPads were purchased for testing students on the new Common Core.
Blume writes:
The project is funded by voter-approved school construction bonds, which typically are paid off by taxpayers over about 25 years.
Students at two elementary schools received the iPads last week in the first rollout. All students are supposed to have tablets by December 2014.
As of now, the iPad project does not include wireless keyboards, in part because the tablet computers have touch screens.
But that setup might not satisfy the needs of older students writing term papers, for example. And if typing on them proves more difficult, that could frustrate or hinder students as they take new online tests. The device’s touch screen could even obscure portions of a test item that would be visible in its entirety on a full screen.
For some time, the district has planned to use the devices for testing based on new English and math learning standards, called the Common Core, that were adopted by California and 44 other states.
There are rumors in the tech industry that Apple will soon release a new generation of iPads, which raises the question of whether they are dumping the soon-to-be-obsolete version on LA students.
The Los Angeles Times has generally been very supportive of
privately managed charter schools, but in an editorial today it
dares to suggest that charter schools should not expand at the
expense of public schools.
In areferendum passed in 2000, intended to make it easier to pass bonds to support public schools,
charter advocates slipped in a little noticed proviso that required
public schools to provide space for charters. As we know, charters
are not governed by the rules and regulations that govern public
schools. But charter schools end up getting more space than public
schools, and causing overcrowding in public schools, where most of
the children are. “That’s because charter schools, which
are often subsidized through foundation grants, tend to have much
smaller class sizes. The charter schools contend that they should
be given a room for each class, even if that class has 15 students
while a classroom of the same size at the traditional public school
might have 30. They also claim that preschool classrooms and parent
centers should be counted in the formula under which charter space
is allocated.”
The Times is quick to note that some
charter schools get high test scores, not noting that the small
class sizes might have something to do with it.
Is it fair to compare a school where classes are 15 to a school where classes are
30?
Is it fair to compare an underfunded public school to a
well-resourced charter school that is backed by billionaires and
their foundations? At some point, even the Los Angeles Times
editorial board will recognize that the billionaires have no
intention of providing equality of educational opportunity for all
the children of Los Angeles. They like having little showcases,
underwritten by the public, pretending to be public schools, but
limited to the children they choose. It is a vanity project, but
its long-term effect will be to damage public education and to harm the great majority of
children, whom the charter advocates don’t want and don’t care
about.
You will definitely want to read Kris Neilson’s description of Michelle Rhee’s upcoming tour, where she will dialogue with teachers about how to have a great teacher in every classroom.
Rhee will hold “teacher town halls” in Birmingham, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
You won’t want to miss the chance to engage in candid dialogue with one of America’s most famous reformers, who will tell you how she was able to transform the public schools of the nation’s Capitol in less than four years.
Although billionaire Eli Broad’s candidates lost the last two school board elections, he will still maintain his grip over the Los Angeles school system. The newly elected Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the selection of a Broad-trained educator as his education advisor.
Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana was a classmate of Superintendent John Deasy in the class of 2006 in the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy.
“The Melendez appointment comes two months after she retired as superintendent of Santa Ana Unified, the largest district in Orange County, with more than 57,000 students. In a letter announcing her retirement, Melendez noted that she’d been instrumental in creating key performance indicators for the district and improving parent engagement.
“According to published reports, however, the two years that Melendez spent at the district were marred by conflict with the Santa Ana teachers union and by turmoil at a middle school caused by students running amok.
“In May, she was one of five finalists for the job of Pasadena Unified superintendent, but withdrew from consideration before a scheduled interview with the district’s school board.”
More about her background:
“From 2009-11, she served as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education under U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. That position followed three years spent as schools chief of Pomona Unified, where she also worked as deputy superintendent and chief academic officer from 1999-2005. She was named 2009 Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators.”
In an unusual arrangement, the city will pay her salary while the schools pay her benefits. This is intended to build up her state pension.
What is not to love about Monica?
She beat the Billionaires Boys Club, which had assembled a massive campaign fund to defeat her.
She was trained as a lawyer, worked in civil rights law, then became a teacher.
She has taught for 12 years in a high-poverty school.
She won election to the LAUSD school board as a long-shot underdog.
Here she gently explains to a host on the Fox Morning Show that all the claims he has heard about the public schools of Los Angeles and about teachers are not true. She patiently explains how excited teachers are to return to their classes, how they pay for supplies out of their own pockets, and how dedicated they are to the success of their students.
Go, Monica, go!
This Los Angeles parent explains why parents are alarmed by the prospect that the new mayor Eric Garcetti might choose Thelma Melendez, one of Arne Duncan’s deputies as his advisor.
She writes:
“In making this appointment, the Mayor should follow his creed to lead by listening and consider first and foremost the concerns of public school parents, the only “special interest” group whose only concern is children. In so doing, he can resist appointing a staffer who will advance the so-called “reform agenda” which tends to view schools as business franchises in need of a quick corporate turn-around.
“Two-thirds of public school parents reject reform policies including an emphasis on standardized testing, closure of struggling schools, shifting resources from traditional schools to charters, narrowing curriculum, reducing teacher pay and benefits, and budget cutting. This was revealed in a national poll of public school parents (including those at charters). Conducted last month, it reflects the same views Angelenos have already demonstrated at the ballot box….
“Parents know the “reform agenda” itself needs reform. The highly political movement, largely funded by business plutocrats, has become as inflexible and oppositional as the unions it points to as the root of all educational evils. Parents are caught in the middle. We want reform, but reform that helps our children, not an imposed agenda that eviscerates neighborhood schools. Reform that aligns city resources to support and to strengthen local neighborhood schools along the Community Schools model makes sense. Mayor Garcetti succeeded at this kind of political leadership as a city councilman when he helped direct anti-poverty grant funds to Mount Washington Elementary School’s new community center and library.
“Taking a cue from both local elections and the overwhelming evidence from the recent parents’ survey, the mayor should appoint an education deputy who will support public schools. That means professional development over teacher bashing, improvement of neighborhood schools over increased competition, and broadening quality curriculum over teach-to-the-test.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 