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Communities for Teaching Excellence, Los Angeles-Based Education Organization, Closing
A Los Angeles-based education advocacy organization backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will disband next month as a crowded field of reform groups compete for limited funding, officials said Thursday. The board of Communities for Teaching Excellence voted last week to dissolve, with a target date of Nov. 15, said Yolie Flores, who founded the group in 2010 and serves as its CEO. Daily News
Here’s the LA Times story.
Desert Trails Parents Choose Charter Operator, Next Step in ‘Parent Trigger’
With a low voter turnout Thursday, parents exercising a “parent trigger” option at the Desert Trails Elementary in Adelanto selected a charter operator in nearby Hesperia to run their school starting next August. The selection of LaVerne Elementary Preparatory Academy, a small K-8 charter with an API of 911 – more than 200 points above Desert Trails’ score of 699 this year – marked the next stage in parents’ contentious and protracted exercise of California’s parent empowerment law. Ed Source
Most Students Give More Healthful State School Menus Thumbs Up
Public school students, by a 3-to-1 margin, say meals have become better tasting under California’s new nutritional standards. For every three California public school students who think school meals are yummier than usual, there’s only one who thinks they’re worse, according to a new poll released Wednesday. LA Times
The Quantified Student
A LAUSD teacher reflects on her past criticism of education reform’s push for standardized test data; her about-face; and her new belief in the role of standardized testing within education. HuffPo Opinion
Parents, Teachers Can Now Sample Common Core Test Questions
Smarter Balanced, the organization that is designing the Common Core assessments for California and two dozen other member states, released sample test items for parents and teachers last week. As expected, they’re anything but your father’s multiple choice. Ed Source
Cal State Monterey Bay Sued Over Pro-Prop 30 Email
An anti-tax group is suing Cal State Monterey Bay over an email that urged students to support Proposition 30. That’s Governor Jerry Brown’s tax initiative to stem further cuts to education. KPCC
Once Failing Highland Park School Making Strides
People unfamiliar with Luther Burbank Middle School in Highland Park might take a quick glance at the campus and its latest student standardized test scores and assume it’s a new, well-performing school. It wasn’t to long ago, however, that the campus was one of Los Angeles Unified School District’s worst performing schools, plagued with gang violence, buildings in danger of collapsing in an earthquake, and many unhappy parents. EGP News
New Wellness Center Opens at Jefferson High
Until now, the school just had a nurse to help their 2,000 students with health issues, but over the last five years they have been planning with LAUSD and the South Central Family Health Center to expand their services. They will now be able to offer much needed preventive health care services, STD checks, and help for chronic issues like asthma and diabetes. Intersections