LAUSD has just announced, in a memo to the school board from the director of instruction in the secondary division, their intention to 're-purpose' adult and occupational education to the "single focus" of "drop-out prevention and recovery." This entails switching into the division of adult and career education (DACE) all the existing secondary "alternative education" programs such as Queen of Angels for pregnant teens and teen moms, the community day schools for kids leaving the "juvenile justice" system etc. They also intend to "leverage" the resources of DACE to meet the needs of "at-risk" kids and "drop-outs" who are no longer enrolled in school.
This is a dangerous scam. From the district point of view, it serves four purposes: a) first and foremost, a public relations build-up that they are doing something about the "drop-out" rate; b) an economy move, to cover the program with part-time and 'contingent' teachers (no tenure or job security, no benefits, lower pay scale) from DACE rather than full-time, tenured and union savvy veteran teachers from secondary; c) budgetary, to cap out state reimbursement for adult ed, while redirecting the money into secondary and d) a real-estate raid on the adult schools like the occupational and skills centers (because if the push-out rate is reduced at all, LAUSD goes right back to overcrowded high schools, despite the new construction. AT my school, Friedman Occ Ctr downtown, they have already moved in a so-called small learning community 'construction" academy with kids from the new Santee HS< which was overcrowded the day it opened. From the secondary students point of view this is a scam and a rip-off. They are being shucked off into a program that cannot really meet their needs, just to produce a statistical improvement in the "drop-out" rate by "recovering" push-outs into DACE as a component of secondary. Most DACE programs are designed for academic self-starters who can work independently; almost no classes are teacher-directed, instead they are "labs" that incorporate 40-60 or more students, each working on their own individual "contract" and course, while the teacher grades papers and scores tests and spends a minute or two with each, setting up small groups, giving feedback, etc. DACE teachers are trained and credentialed for teaching adult (or even geriatric) learners, not kids. From the adult learners' point of view, they (LAUSD bureaucrats) are destroying the adult program, killing "the goose that lays the golden eggs" to get a "quick fix" reduction in dropout rates, and thereby pushing adult learners out of the adult schools. This will also have a negative impact on the kids, because the current adult students are mostly the parents and older siblings of kids in LAUSD elementary and secondary classes. Right now DACE is able to help a substantial number of high school kids who are integrated (mostly while off-track, occasionally after school, or in the AEWC program) into the adult oriented operation. Given more responsibility and respect and a positive learning environment, or concrete hands-on career technical training programs, and a majority of adults in the classroom, those kids get credits to graduate and practical skills. But if high school overwhelms the adult program with their numbers, they will simply shift the problems that create force-outs in secondary now into the new DACE secondary. Meanwhile the adults will be driven into costlier programs in private schools or community colleges. From the teachers' point of view, the existing secondary "alternate education" programs and the existing adult and career tech programs, both of which have been fairly successful, are being turned upside down without consultation with teachers, students or parents, with the clear aim of reducing teacher pay, job security, benefits and control over working conditions. We are having a task force meeting of adult and secondary teachers at UTLA on Friday at 4 PM (3303 Wilshire at Berendo, a couple of blocks west of Vermont) and would love to have some people from ENI, CEJ etc come and participate. LAUSD recently did involuntary transfers of Ernest Kettenring and Marc Wutschke, two elected leaders of DACE teachers; and Alex CAputo-Pearl, the pro-community chapter chair (shop steward) for teachers at Crenshaw High; this new move immediately and dramatically affects Warren Fletcher, a long-time union militant, former head of the substitutes and the union rep for the secondary alternative education teachers. This makes the move part and parcel of the district attack on the teachers union as well as on community oriented activists within it. --Michael Novick At 08:01 PM 9/12/2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Dear John and Bill: I hope to join your Coalition for Educational >Justice. There are many issues that we as parents need to share and >understand before we can fight the Board of Education, Mayor and other who >are just diverting our attention from our kids. How do I join and set up >our own group for the Northeast area public schools in Highland Park. Let >me know. Peace, Hungry Coyote de Aztlan >-----Original Message----- >From: John A Imani >Sent: Sep 11, 2006 6:04 PM >To: LAAMN , "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" >Subject: [DopeXResistance-L.A.] Support Crenshaw High School Teacher Alex >Caputo-Pearl >Bill Gallegos <<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ><?xml:namespace prefix = o /> >The Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) is a very special organization >working to organize parents, students, and teachers (primarily oppressed >people of color) to achieve a radical transformation of Los Angeles public >education. CEJ was the first organization in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 >/>Los Angeles to firmly, consistently, and loudly challenge the racist >standardized testing system that has become the insane measure for >educational equity, quality knowledge acquisition, and critical thinking >skills. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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