District Administration - November/December 2011 - (Page 12)

Br iefings Newsupdate PeoPle Watch STEM in California Calif. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson and the California STEM Learning Network gathered business and philanthropic community members on Oct. 11 for the California STEM Summit 2011 to discuss how to keep students competitive. CErTifiCaTion ChangES Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike flanagan says that although he wants every teacher to be effective, he will not remove their licenses if they score poorly on an annual evaluation. Flanagan says everyone needs a chance to improve. abSTinEnCE only DEbaTE New York City Republican Rep. bob Turner has joined forces with Republican colleague Michael Grimm and the NYC Parents’ Choice Coalition to lobby for an abstinence-only option for the city’s new sex education curriculum, which the group feels is too radical. lifETiME aChiEvEMEnT Darline robles, a professor of clinical education at the University of Southern California, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents at the group’s national conference on Oct. 14. lgbT EDuCaTion in Calif. By January 2012, all K12 schools in California are required to incorporate lessons about the accomplishments of the LGBT community members across the curriculum, according to a law signed by Gov. Jerry brown this past summer. By Marion Herbert LAuSD Makes Civil Rights Improvements even before the feder al department of education’s office of Civil rights ended its 19-month compliance review of potential civil rights violations in the los angeles Unified School district, district leaders knew they had to change their program for ells and other students. following the launch of the investigation in March 2010, the civil rights office determined in october 2010 that ells and black students were not getting the services they were entitled to under the law. Subsequently, the office and the district agreed upon a voluntary resolution agreement, the result of the department’s first proactive civil rights enforcement action under the obama administration. “This historic agreement for students in laUSd is the result of an exceptional federal and local collaboration. It’s a coming together, without blame, to lay a vision for what is right,” says russlyn ali, assistant secretary for civil rights for the department of education. laUSd’s case is among 74 compliance reviews of K12 districts and higher education institutions that the office is handling, along with more than 7,800 complaints from individuals and groups in the last year, as of late September 2011. The master plan focuses particularly on secondary students in the Preparation for reclassification Program (PrP), who have completed the ell six-year program but have not been deemed proficient. as a result, la deputy Superintendent Jaime aquino says the district learned on its own that it needed to ensure all teachers focus on both content and explicit language instruction. This will mean providing more profes- U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali sit at a board meeting of the Los Angeles Unified School District. sional development for such teachers. The resolution calls for implementing meaningful professional development geared at strengthening instruction to ells, communicating with ell parents so they understand the el program and their children’s academic progress, and ensuring that ells and their parents have access to college and career-ready curricula and have the information they need to prepare for success in higher education and careers. The resolution also calls for the district to ensure that african-american students are more fairly evaluated for gifted and talented programs, takes steps to eliminate inadequate and disproportionate discipline practices against blacks as compared to white students, and renews its focus on identifying the academic english needs of students and ensuring they can graduate college and are career ready. The district has until the next school year to comply, aquino says. If it does not, says ali, the federal government can terminate its funding or follow through in court. —Angela Pascopella District Administration 12 November/December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November/December 2011

District Administration - November/December 2011
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Inside the Law
Administrator Profile
District Profile
CIO news
How to Update Your Network on a Budget
The Importance of IT Team Unity
Creating an Anti-Bullying Program With the Resources You Have
The Ultimate Empowerment Program for Parents
Taking the Helm in Cheating Scandals
Readers’ Choice: Top 100 Products
New Directions
Professional Opinion
Problem/Solution
Going Mobile

District Administration - November/December 2011