Don't Hold Us Back

Parent Romona Calderon musters support from others with a cheer in the "Don't Hold Us Back" group prior to the start of the LAUSD board meeting. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times / November 1, 2011)

Sunday’s column from LA Times columnist Steve Lopez praised the Don’t Hold Us Back coalition.

Six million, give or take. That’s how many children are in public school in California.

Arguably, we won’t have a strong economic future if they don’t get a good education.

But boy, do the grown-ups love to muck things up for the kids.

Politics, ego, endless skirmishes between school districts and teacher unions — it all gets in the way of the kids’ best interests. And California spends less per pupil than all but a few states when you adjust for regional cost-of-living differences, leading to an annual ritual of laying off thousands of teachers and other staffers.

But in Los Angeles, the status quo is under attack.

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The Civic Alliance recently sent this letter to Dr. John Deasy, Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District, Mr. Warren Fletcher and UTLA Membership and the Members of the Board of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District.

October 24, 2010

Dr. John Deasy

Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District

333 South Beaudry Avenue, 24th Floor

Los Angeles, California 90071

Mr. Warren Fletcher and UTLA Membership

United Teachers Los Angeles

3303 Wilshire Boulevard, 10th Floor

Los Angeles, California 90010

Members, Board of Education

Los Angeles Unified School District

333 South Beaudry Avenue, 24th Floor

Los Angeles, California 90017

Dear Gentlemen and Ladies:

As a collective set of individuals and organizations that represent the public and private sectors serving millions of families across this city, we consider the Los Angeles Unified School District a cornerstone of our community.  When the nearly 700,000 students who attend schools in the District succeed academically, families do better, the economy thrives, and our citizens become more engaged.  We succeed when LAUSA succeeds.

The current contract with UTLA expired on June 30th.  We are urging 1.) that UTLA and LAUSD leadership complete negotiations on a new contract at a pace that matches the urgency of the need–teachers want it, students deserve it, and parents expect it.  2.)  We are also urging that any contract provide key provisions set forth below.

We recognize student test scores have been increasing incrementally over the last few years; however, incremental advances are simply not enough.  When only 56% of our students graduate from high school ini four years, we are failing close to half of our kids and consigning them to a life of poverty.  We know the most critical difference in the academic success of a student is the quality of their teacher.  Providing the students in our diverse district with the best possible education will require change and comprehensive reform in the way teachers and school leaders are recruited, compensated, evaluated, developed and retained.

The time is now for our leadership to do the right thing.  We are sure you all agree that we must put the needs of students ahead of those of adults.  We must protect our students’ right to a  quality education and we support you in that pursuit.

Both the Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles have an incredible opportunity to create real systemic change in our schools by negotiating one of the most important labor contracts in the history of this city.  However, there seems to be no urgency to make the changes that would ensure that EVERY student has access to quality teaching – not some students who are lucky enough to be in high-performing charter schools, pilot schools or other teacher-led models that are graduating upwards of 90% of their poor children of color and who are proving it can be done.

We urge you to come to agreement on the following provisions:

• Expand autonomy to every school so that teachers and principals have more flexibility and are empowered to design the type of curriculum, schedule and interventions that they feel will work.

• Empower principals to build their own teams and recruit teachers; stop forcing them to take “must-place” teachers based on factors that have nothing to do with student achievement.  Principals should be empowered to hire who they want, and not have to deal with forced placements of teachers.

• Include consideration of school/program needs and teacher performance when implementing personnel decisions, including reductions in force, transfers, displacements, assignments, and return rights.

• Guarantee that every school can vote on agreements that clearly state what is expected for employees at each school site (elect-to-work agreement), and that any school whose staff votes for such an agreement is allowed to implement it.

• Provide multiple measure evaluations to teachers, in which observations by academic leaders, student “academic growth over time” data, and stakeholder (teacher, parents, and student) feedback, and a teacher’s contribution to the school are used to evaluate teacher quality.

• Connect appropriate professional development to teachers so they may use the evaluation data to improve their practice.

• Provide mechanisms for teachers to receive additional compensation for being effective, not for taking additional courses, and for taking on harder assignments.

While we know that our schools are severely under-resourced, people do not want to fund a broken system.  Start putting kids first and the community will overwhelmingly support you.  We call on the Superintendent, the LAUSD school board and the House of Representatives of UTLA to approve a new landmark contract.  The public expects you to do the right thing for the students of Los Angeles.

For further information, please contact George Kieffer at (310) 312-4146, Elise Buik at (213) 808-6310, or Edward Avila at (213) 250-0052.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Avila

President, Alliance for a Better Community*

Elise Buik 

President and CEO, United Way of Greater Los Angeles*

James Cuno

President and CEO, The J. Paul Getty Trust*

John Emerson

Chairman Emeritus, Music Center*

David Fleming 

Of Counsel, Latham & Watkins LLP* Founding Chair, LA County Business Federation*

Ronald Gastelum

Attorney at Law*

Russell Goldsmith

Chairman and CEO, City National Bank*

Antonia Hernandez

President and CEO, California Community Foundation*

Mickey Kantor

Partner, Mayer Brown LLP*

George Kieffer

Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP*

Stewart Kwoh

President & Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Legal Center*

Andy Lipkis 

President, Tree People*

Cindy Miscikowski 

President, Board of Harbor Commissions Port of Los Angeles* System*

Thomas M. Priselac

President & CEO, Cedars Sinai Health System*

Robert K. Ross, M.D.

President & CEO, The California Endowment*

John H. Semcken III

Vice President, Majestic Realty Co.*

Robert Simonds

The Robert Simonds Company*

Steve Soboroff

Soboroff Partners*

Blair Taylor

President & CEO, Los Angeles Urban League*

Gary Toebben

President & CEO, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce*

Matthew A. Toledo

CEO & Publisher, Los Angeles Business Journal*

John Mack

Vice President, Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners*; Former President Los Angeles Urban League*

Charles Kerchner, Author, Research professor at Claremont Graduate University and Huffington Post columnist

“Sometimes the most interesting political commentary is found in the comics…or in the ads.

Monday’s editions of the Los Angeles Times, Daily News and La Opinion carried a full-page ad from a coalition of civic and community organizations aimed at influencing the negotiations between the Los Angeles Unified School District and its teachers, represented by United Teachers Los Angeles.

The ad itself is pretty bland.  “Don’t hold us back,” is not exactly a searing catch phrase.  But the underlying issues are explosive: teacher evaluation, employment security, and school-site determination of work rules.

Essentially, the ad’s sponsors are drawing up a third chair to the bargaining table.  They are attempting to influence both labor and management, but clearly they are in line with the positions and issues articulated by Superintendent John Deasy last summer.  The increasingly bold and strident parent and community voice, amplified and modulated with foundation money, changes the politics of collective bargaining and challenges the union’s historic claim on parent loyalty.”

Click to read the rest of the article at CharlesKerchner.com or on huffingtonpost.com

Today’s write up in LA Weekly sheds some additional light on our cause.

Today, full page ads appear in the L.A. Times, Daily News and La Opinion taken out by Don’t Hold Us Back — respected organizations calling out United Teachers Los Angeles and LAUSD for letting kids fail. The new supergroup includes The United Way, The Urban League, Community Coalition, Alliance for a Better Community, Families in Schools, Asian Pacific American Legal Center and Communities for Teaching Excellence.

The ad’s bland wording at first seems a bit “so what?” but it’s actually written in code to UTLA leaders, who have helped the local teachers union gain a reputation as one of the most anti-reform big-city education unions in the U.S. Here’s a translation:

In one line, the ad says teachers should “be rewarded for academic excellence.”

That sounds normal, right?

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