Marshall Tuck is a better Democrat than Tom Torklason for this job: Tuck works well with the teachers union, and makes progress at the same time

Marshall Tuck (left) and Tom Torlakson

San Diego City Beat published the following endorsement for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I disagree with editor David Rolland's conclusions, but he brings up some great discussion points.

Our June 3 primary-election endorsements
San Diego City Beat editorial
David Rolland, editor
May 07, 2014

...Marshall Tuck says he has the fix for California's ailing education system, and he has many people convinced.

Recently, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorsed him, touting the 40-year-old entrepreneur as a reformer. The two worked together on the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, a nonprofit credited with improving education in low-income neighborhoods.

Tuck is also the past president of Green Dot Public Schools, one of the nation's most prominent charter-school networks.

Tuck hopes to unseat incumbent Tom Torlakson, a Democrat who has the support of the powerful California Teachers Association and the Democratic Party.

Increasingly, liberals support an education-reform agenda, but during his time in office, Torlakson has been lackluster, unwilling to stand up to union intransigence. Citizens now have to choose between a status-quo candidate and someone who could push for troubling changes.

[Maura Larkins' response: It's interesting that City Beat identifies Torlakson as a Democrat, but fails to let readers know that Tuck is also a Democrat. But at least City Beat editor David Rolland admits that Torlakson has failed to stand up to union intransigence or to change the status quo. Too many Democrats like to roll over and play dead as soon as the California Teachers Association steps into the arena. Democrats should care about kids as well as teachers. Teachers should be considered, but they shouldn't continue to have the final say on what goes on in our failing schools, especially since they refuse to agree to any plan for objective, effective teacher evaluations.]

Part of improving education, Tuck argues, is weakening labor protections for educators, such as seniority-based layoffs, making teachers wait longer than two years to get tenure and tying teacher evaluations to student test scores. Not everything Tuck proposes is bad, but as a former Wall Street investment banker with funding from groups that would love to see the privatization of public schools, it's unclear how far he would go to dismantle the current system.

While the superintendent's office interprets the education code, it has less power in terms of setting policy. So some feel Tuck could bring fresh perspective without being able to do too much damage.

However, Tuck is too dangerous of a choice for us. We reluctantly endorse Tom Torlakson for superintendent.

[Maura Larkins' response: Dangerous? Changing the status quo is dangerous? That makes no sense since the current system is consigning millions of students to a lifetime of failure (that's not dangerous?) and Tuck has admitted that the Superintendent doesn't even set policy.

Many people prefer the current system because it allows for arbitrary, political decision-making.

The teachers union does not want to address the problem of rampant mediocrity among teachers--or the smaller problem of the 10% of teachers who are ineffective.

CTA wants teacher evaluations and other decisions to continue to be determined by school politics rather than objective data provided by outside observers or standardized tests.

I don't believe students tests should be used to fire teachers, but I do believe the tests should be used to determine whether a teacher should either:
1) become a master teacher; or
2) be given a part-time master teacher to guide the weaker teacher and give supplemental lessons to students.

Many moguls (like Irwin Jacobs) and their administrator pals also want to avoid objective measurements and simply turn over all the power of teacher evaluations to principals. I notice these folks haven't come up with a way to evaluate principals, which is a problem since many principals are simply failed teachers.

Mr. Rolland seems as intransigent as the teachers union.

Sadly, Mr. Rolland is typical of San Diego liberals who march in lock step with the California Teacher Association leadership. Los Angeles liberals are more independent of CTA.

City Beat uses hysterical phrases like "dismantle the current system", then admits in his next breath that the state superintendent can't change policy. He clearly believes that the teachers union deserves protection more than kids do. I can see why he'd want to avoid an extreme anti-union candidate, but Tuck is a Democrat who has worked well with the California Teachers Association. Teachers at Green Dot schools created a model for teacher evaluations that will be used by the state:]

New Teachers' Union Contract Now In Effect at Green Dot Schools

07/12/2012

Teacher-Designed Evaluation Process and Professional Support to Serve as State Model

Los Angeles - Green Dot Public Schools announced a new contract agreement with their local teacher union, Asociación de Maestros Unidos (AMU), that provides a salary schedule step increase, a catch-up provision, and an innovative bonus program tied to teacher effectiveness. The contract, designed by teachers and ratified by vote of union members in May, officially went into effect July 1.

“In a time when the state has suffered severe cutbacks in education, we’re pleased our teachers will be better paid, better protected and better supported,” said Marco Petruzzi, Green Dot Public Schools’ President and CEO. “That is really a win for our students because it furthers our goal of having excellent instruction in every classroom.”

Under the new agreement, teachers will go through a more fair and comprehensive evaluation and development process, which will include multiple observations, ongoing feedback, and opportunities for professional growth. Test scores will be just one among multiple measures used for evaluation. Other key attributes of the agreement include a two-year pilot program for bonuses based on teacher effectiveness, and three additional professional development days for new teachers.

“We believe we’re on the right path to creating a more meaningful way of assessing teacher effectiveness,” added Dr. Cristina de Jesus, Green Dot’s Chief Academic Officer, speaking about the evaluation and development tools included the new contract. “Our goal is to become the leader in supporting teachers in their professional growth.”...

I disagree with Marshal Tuck about Vergara v. California. I think getting rid of tenure and seniority would be a disaster without instituting effective teacher evaluations. But something has to be done to release the death grip of CTA that prevents any meaningful reform at all. I also think something needs to be done to release the death grip of administrators.

What exactly will it take for California Teachers Association to agree to reforms, including effective teachers evaluations?

I don't like the Parent Trigger law, since parents don't seem to be able to improve schools when they take them over, but at least it gets the attention of officials in failing schools.

A Great Divide: The Election Fight for California’s Schools By Gary Cohn California Expose March 12, 2014 ...“There’s no question that the teachers union has a lot of influence on the state, but I think they get too much negative credit for all the problems,” Tuck tells Capital & Main during a lengthy interview at his bare-bones campaign office on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. Then, almost in mid-sentence, he appears to change his mind about teachers unions. “Right now,” he continues, “their seat at the table is too big and they have too much influence over education policy.”

Tuck has spent almost no time as a classroom instructor, while the 64-year-old Torlakson is a veteran science teacher and track coach. Torlakson, who is still a teacher on leave from Contra Costa County’s Mount Diablo Unified School District, says he usually teaches one community college course every year. He was elected as California’s 27th State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2010 after serving in the state legislature. The two men also face longshot candidate Lydia Gutierrez, who lost a bid for superintendent in the 2010 primary. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the June primary vote, a runoff election between the two frontrunners will take place in November.

Torlakson has received substantial financial support from unions and celebrates his closeness with teachers. “I’m happy to be aligned with teachers – classroom teachers know me and trust me,” he says in a telephone interview.

A significant indication of what a future Tuck administration’s relations with teachers might look like can be found in his embrace of a lawsuit that seeks to erase nearly a century of teacher job protections, including seniority rights. The lawsuit, Vergara v. California, is currently being tried in Los Angeles Superior Court and names Torlakson as a defendant.

“I’m supportive of the case,” Tuck says. “I think that the changes they’re asking for are good for kids and make sense for California schools.” He points out that he recently wrote a commentary for LA School Report backing the case. Tuck also believes in the contentious Parent Trigger law, which has opened the door for charter schools to take over public schools and is strongly supported by conservatives and school privatizers. Torlakson voted against the law in 2009 when he was a member of the state Assembly.

Surprisingly, even those who follow the politics of education have paid little attention to the Tuck-Torlakson battle, which has received scant media coverage so far. John Rogers, director of the University of California, Los Angeles’ Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, suggests that influence over education policy has shifted somewhat from the superintendent to the California State Board of Education. The board’s current president is Michael Kirst, who was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown. Kirst had served on the state board of education under Brown in his first term as governor in 1975...

Here's a bizarre endorsement from San Diego's La Prensa:

State Superintendent of Public Instruction

This year the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is a very competitive race between the incumbent Torlakson and Marshall Tuck...

The last thing the schools need today are more changes...

We believe that now is not the time for change, but a time for a steady hand on the wheel to help guide education and Torlakson is that person.

[Maura Larkins' comment: I wouldn't call it "guiding" if the guide is guaranteed not to change course. You don't even need a human being at the wheel if you don't want any changes. You just jury rig the steering wheel so it can't move.]

Green Dot Charter Schools make a difference at Locke High, which was likely the worst school in LAUSD

"So many of us who had been working here for many years, without even knowing, we fell into habits. Whether it was bad habits or just kind of the habit of not caring."


Los Angeles' Most Troubled High School Undergoes Transformation
In Novel Experiment, 'Green Dot' Seeks to Breathe New Life into Students and School
By LISA LING and HERRAN BEKELE
Aug. 13, 2009
ABC News

...In an attempt to redefine the Locke's leadership, Green Dot fired all the school's original teachers in 2007 and made them reapply for their jobs.

"We felt like it was a slap to our face, when someone said they could do the job that no one else was doing," said Zeus Cubias, a Locke alum, who has been a teacher in the district for the last 11 years.

"So many of us who had been working here for many years, without even knowing, we fell into habits. Whether it was bad habits or just kind of the habit of not caring," Cubias told ABC News...

It didn't help that Jimmy was frequently late for school, but he got a bit of a break because of his troubled home life. Jimmy's father, a gang member, had been in prison for most of his life; and in 2007, his mother died of lupus, leaving him and his seven brothers and sisters to move in with his retired grandmother.

"My mom was like ... like my backbone, like your spinal cord, that's what my mom was, part of my body," he said. "Sometimes I think I could just throw the towel in, like I think, I can't do it no more. It's just impossible for me to continue on with my life like this."...

But Locke can't shield its students from the violence just outside its gates. In April 2009, one of its students was shot on the edge of the campus.

"This happens. This is Watts, and there are 20 something known gang territories that intersect on this corner," Barr explains. "We pushed the gangs off of campus. But you can only push them so far."...
This year, Locke graduated the second highest number of students in its history and sent more students to four-year universities than ever before...

Green Dot charter high schools score big

US News and World Report Ranks Three Green Dot Schools Among the Nation's Best

US News and World Report ranked three Green Dot schools in 2008 as among the best in the nation. Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High School and Animo Leadership Charter High School both made the top 100, with Oscar De La Hoya ranking #53 and Animo Leadership ranking #94. Animo Film and Theater Arts High School made the Silver Medal list.


The New High School Rankings Are Here
US News and World Report
December 14, 2008

U.S. News has just launched its second annual list of America's Best High Schools. The analysis of more than 21,000 public high schools in 48 states is available here and on newsstands as of December 8 in the magazine issue dated Dec. 1522, 2008.

To produce the 2009 America's Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News teamed up with School Evaluation Services (SES), a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor's. SES developed the comprehensive methodology that judges how well high schools serve all their students, not just those who are collegebound...

Locke High School: Charter Reversal To Be Reversed?

Update Aug. 31, 2007: The board decision discussed in the first paragraph below turned out to be 5-2 in favor of considering the Locke charter school petition at the September 11, 2007 meeting. This indicates that a majority of the board has a positive attitude toward the charter at this time, but there will probably be a lot of arm twisting before that vote. Howard Bloom of the Los Angeles Times wrote on Aug. 29, 2007, "Green Dot shocked district officials in May when it announced that a majority of Locke's tenured teachers had signed petitions in support of a takeover, clearing the major legal barrier to conversion. District officials countered with promises to teachers of increased authority and reforms if Locke remained within the district. Officials said 18 teachers rescinded their signatures. The tally of charter supporters dwindled to 24, well short of the 37 that would have equaled 50% of the tenured faculty, said Gregory McNair, who heads the district's charter-school division. "The sales pitch was whether I would like to see changes at Locke," said teacher Jessica Tang, who said she did not understand the petition's ramifications. Tang withdrew her signature."


Locke High School: Return of the Jedi?
August 27th, 2007 by Celeste Fremon
WitnessLA.com

Tuesday [August 28, 2007] is the day that the LAUSD board will decide whether or not it wants to jump into the drama that unfolded last spring around Locke High School. More specifically, the board will vote Tuesday morning on a resolution introduced last month by new board member Richard Vladovic, which would mandate an up-or-down vote by the board on the the Locke/Green Dot charter petition.

If that sounds overly complicated, let me refresh your memories: Last May, Green Dot and Locke’s activist teachers formally submitted a petition asking for the low scoring high school to be converted to a charter school, with Green Dot the administrative entity. The petition was signed by approximately 60 percent of Locke’s 73 tenured teachers. The Green Dot supporters only needed 51 percent, to legally trigger a charter conversion. So, bingo, the charter was all set to be mandated…..but…..
…. the Empire Struck Back. Furious union and district officials met with teachers, then bullied, hectored and scared the bejeezus out of them. The upshot was, seventeen of the teachers rescinded their signatures, thus dynamiting the charter majority. (Whether all this rescinding is legal or not, is up for debate, but in any case, there was now a cloud over the petition. )

While they were at it, district officials also fired Locke’s principal, Dr. Frank Wells, for supporting the charter move, and demoted Bruce Smith, the senior teacher who was a leader in the charter fight. (He told me that, last week when he got his paycheck, instead of getting around $40 an hour he got $31.86, another questionably legal move on the part of district apparatchiks.)

Many disgruntled district watchers (myself included) then called on the newly reconstituted LAUSD board to prove their would-be-reformist mettle and thus step in and settle the issue. Whether or not they choose to be….as Mr. Bush might say….the deciders, is what is up for a vote today.

The drama was upped a few notches last Wednesday, when in a surprising turn of events, LAUSD Superintendent, Admiral Brewer, came over to Locke and, in a meeting with the faculty, publically supported the charter conversion. Since that time, six teachers have rescinded their rescinding—with another half-dozen still on vacation rumored to be planning to do the same.

So….this brings us to this morning’s meeting. Eight union people will speak against the charter conversion, with four speaking for it. (Weirdly, there were only eight speaker spots and the union simply gobbled them all up. It was only after the Green Dot group launched a strong protest that four additional speakers spots were opened up. Gee. How debate friendly!)

(And, yes, that is Steve Barr in the photo.)
http://witnessla.com/category/green-dot/

If you were a Hispanic teenager, would you want to go to Oscar de la Hoya High School?

If I were a Hispanic teenager, I think I'd get a kick out of going to Oscar de le Hoya High School. De la Hoya worked with Green Dot Public Schools and Taylor Fierce Architects to convert de la Hoya's gym in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, into a charter high school.

The architects describe their work:
"The charter school movement is generating schools that are smaller, more "urban" in design, and more closely linked with their neighborhoods. This particular project is the result of a collaboration between the boxer Oscar de la Hoya and Green Dot Public Schools. Located in Boyle Heights on the difficult 36,000 sf site of Oscar's original gym, the 45,000 sf program combines a charter high school with a boxing center open to the neighborhood, and has 40 parkling spaces on grade. Sun control for the Western facing classrooms was also a primary design issue."

More about principal Frank Wells

Locke High School, near Watts in Los Angles, California

Here's what Joanne Jacobs (joannejacob.com on May 4, 2007) had to say about Los Angeles principal Frank Wells before he was dismissed:

"Frank Wells, principal of a very bad Los Angeles high school, said he doesn’t need more money, reports the LA Times. (Repent of your sins! The end time is near!) On a visit to a Green Dot charter school, Frank Wells bitterly criticized the district bureaucracy for blocking real change at Locke High, near Watts. He called it “criminal to allow a school to continue on year after year, the way this one has.”

"“The more you fail, the more money they throw at you,” he said. “We’re filthy rich; I don’t want any more of your money. Send me quality teachers.”

"Wells was brought in to turn around Locke but says he’s run into a “brick wall.” "

[I agree with the following comment by Larry Strauss regarding Joanne Jacobs' post.]

"This is an example of where the ability of a principal to pay incentives to get quality teachers would probably have an impact.

"I don’t know too many teachers who would volunteer to transfer to Locke. My school is one of the alternatives to Locke — and Washington and Fremont — but our enrollment is only 360 (one reason our school has a graduation rate about 60% higher than Locke). One of our foreign language teachers began her career at Locke and has no desire to return there. Former Supt. Romer wanted to be able to force teachers to teach wherever he saw fit to assign them, which wouldn’t be terribly good for morale or retention….

"So Principal Wells has all this money… He can buy mountains of new text books but without enough “quality teachers” what good are those book? He can equip his classrooms with state of the art technology but without enough quality teachers the equipment is likely to go to waste.

"There isn’t a level playing field when it comes to hiring quality teachers. Geography, neighborhood safety, reputation, and challenging students make schools like Locke less desirable to most teachers. Offering incentive pay could level the playing field.

"One more thing: it is important to consider, when discussing a school such as Locke, that there are already quality teachers there. I know some myself. They might be in the minority which makes them even more outstanding. They put up with a lot of crap every day in their classrooms, in the hallways, and then they get dumped on along with the rest of the school by the press, the public, and the politicians…."

Union and District work to get rid of reform-minded principal

A. J. Duffy, President of United Teachers of Los Angeles


Green Dot Hero-Principal Frank Wells has been dismissed from Los Angeles Unified School District.

Steve Barr's Green Dot Public Schools were the subject of a New York Times article by Sam Dillon 07/24/2007:

"...Clint Bolick, a lawyer who has represented many charter schools, said: “If union bosses start patrolling their hallways, that’ll be the death knell of charters, as it has been for public schools. There has to be a genuine perestroika for Green Dot’s approach to work.”

"Tactics aside, the chain has had promising results. An early high school that Green Dot founded, Ànimo Inglewood, has raised the percent of students proficient in math by 40 points since 2003, and 79 percent of its students from the class of 2006 went on to college. Green Dot keeps enrollment in its high schools below 525. Incoming freshmen who need it remedial tutoring get it, and thereafter pursue a college-prep curriculum.

"Three years ago, Mr. Barr negotiated with district officials about overhauling Jefferson High School, a dropout factory in downtown Los Angeles. When the talks bogged down, Mr. Barr concluded he needed clout.

"Green Dot organized a parents union, and its members, buttonholing neighbors in supermarkets and churches, collected 10,000 signatures endorsing Jefferson’s division into several smaller charter schools.


Green Dot founder Steve Barr

"Mr. Barr marched from Jefferson High with nearly 1,000 parents to deliver the petition to district headquarters. The authorities refused to relinquish Jefferson, but the school board approved five new charters, which Green Dot inaugurated last fall, all near Jefferson and drawing students from it.

"Green Dot’s recent organizing suggests that many teachers are as frustrated as parents.

"Locke, designated a failing school for much of a decade, is awaiting its fourth principal in five years. This spring, Mr. Barr drew up a charter plan and began meeting with teachers to explain it. He envisioned using the Locke campus for smaller schools that emphasize college prep and give teachers more decision-making authority.

"He invited Frank Wells, Locke’s principal, to tour a Green Dot charter in May, a day on which Education Secretary Margaret Spellings would be visiting. Before parents, teachers and the secretary, Mr. Wells denounced the district as using Locke as a dumping ground for incompetent teachers.

"“I went to Locke thinking I could turn it around, but I ran into a brick wall,” Mr. Wells said.

"On May 7, teachers began circulating a petition endorsing Green Dot’s plan for Locke, and more than half of Locke’s 73-member tenured staff members signed. Bruce Smith, an English teacher who gathered signatures, said most young teachers were eager to sign; older teachers were reluctant.

"“Among the people who opposed us, nobody said, ‘The district is doing a great job here,’ ” Mr. Smith recalled. “It was mostly, ‘What about our job security?’ ”

"The district authorities accused Mr. Wells of fomenting the revolt, dispatched guards to escort him from the building, and dismissed him, Mr. Wells said. Binti Harvey, a district spokeswoman, declined to discuss Mr. Wells.

"A decision by Locke’s teachers to break with the district would be an embarrassment for the school district and the teachers union. Both began lobbying the teachers. Last month, the district rejected Green Dot’s petition, saying 17 teachers had withdrawn their endorsement, leaving it without the majority necessary to comply with a charter conversion law.

"But a newly elected board of education is to reconsider the petition in August."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/us/24charter.html?pagewanted=print

An upstart union comes to charter schools in Los Angeles

The new union is AMU, Asociacion de Maestros Unidos, the Animo Teachers' Union


From the New York Times:
2007-07-24
By Sam Dillon

Steve Barr, a major organizer of charter schools, has been waging what often seems like a guerrilla war for control of this city’s chronically failing high schools.

In just seven years, Mr. Barr’s Green Dot Public Schools organization has founded 10 charter high schools and has won approval to open 10 more. Now, in his most aggressive challenge to the public school system, he is fighting to seize control of Locke Senior High, a gang-ridden school in Watts known as one of the worst in the city. A 15-year-old girl was killed by gunfire there in 2005.

In the process, Mr. Barr has fomented a teachers revolt against the Los Angeles Unified School District.

He has driven a wedge through the city’s teachers union by welcoming organized labor — in contrast to other charter operators — and signing a contract with an upstart union...




Board of Directors of Green Dot

Steve Barr – Founder & Chairman, Green Dot Public Schools
Charisse Bremond-Weaver – President & CEO, Brotherhood Crusade
Oscar De La Hoya – Professional Boxer, Philanthropist and Businessman
Glenn Dryfoos – Senior Vice President - Business Affairs, Univision Communications
Susan Estrich – Professor, University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Abigail Garcia – President, Asociacion de Maestros Unidos
Mike Garcia – President, Service Employees International Union Local 1877
Kevin Hall – Chief Operating Officer, Broad Foundation
Rich Leib – Executive Vice President, Liquid Environmental Solutions
Noah Mamet – President, Mamet & Associates
Shane Martin – Dean, Loyola Marymount Graduate School of Education
Pam Rector – Director of the Center for Service and Action, Loyola Marymount
Richard Schaefer – Chief Executive Officer, Golden Boy Promotions
Jeff Shell – President, Comcast Programming, Comcast Communications
Timothy Watkins – President and CEO, Watts Labor Community Action Committee
Joanne Weiss – Partner and Chief Operating Officer, NewSchools Venture Fund


Abigail Garcia is the President of Asociacion de Maestros Unidos, the union representing Green Dot’s teachers and an affiliate of CTA/NEA. She has taught English at Animo Leadership Charter High School for two years. She was driven to the field of education after witnessing the discrepancies in the quality of education available to Latinos compared to other ethnicities and the disproportionately low number of Latinos in higher education. She sees teaching as a catalyst to encourage and promote higher learning among Latinos and empower students in underserved communities. Prior to joining Green Dot, she worked at an elementary school in Watts, California as the Parent Coordinator. Ms. Garcia earned her Masters in Secondary Education and received her BCLAD credential from Loyola Marymount University. She earned a double Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Spanish from the University of California at Berkeley.