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Pulling the Trigger on Failing Schools

Parents aim for revolution — again

"There's definitely the idea that we might be up to something else," says Yuri Anaya, a Parent Revolution organizer of two chapters in Pasadena. She claims she's overheard fearful whispers that a trigger effort might be underfoot, even though Muir High and Jefferson Elementary aren't among the 1,300-plus California schools performing poorly enough to be eligible for trigger reform.

On the tour bus in September, Parent Revolution founders Ben Austin and Pat DeTemple brushed off the Weekly's attempts at a "charters versus unions" debate.

Both forces, if left unchecked, will grow too powerful, they explained. That's why a third pillar — formed by parents, who answer to nobody but their kids — is necessary to keep education reform on track.

The weight of Compton clearly has been lifted from their shoulders. Celerity, the charter school that had been ready to take over McKinley, ended up moving into an empty schoolhouse next door. One-third of McKinley students soon transferred over. And according to Jennifer Welsh, a documentary filmmaker who followed the first trigger attempt, Compton Unified officials have said in recent interviews that they learned a lot from the experience. Once the national spotlight flooded the district's dark conference room, elected officials realized their 50 percent graduation rate wouldn't cut it forever.

As for Parents Revolution, Austin says, "We've been kind of becoming a lot more wonky lately." This month, directors even filled a brand-new post: policy director.

Christina Vargas, the woman chosen for the job, says she's been poring through a "myriad of different sources" — think tank Mass Insight, for example, and Harvard research — and condensing them into digestible, three-hour info sessions.

"That's the part that's exciting," Vargas says. "How do we create an informed and empowered body of parents?"

By reviewing studies on what makes teachers and classrooms most effective, Vargas says, parents can use that information however they please: to lobby politicians in Sacramento, to barter with school officials or — when all else fails — to pull the trigger.

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9 comments
CallahanRoger
CallahanRoger

my neighbor's mom makes $68 every hour on the internet. She has been laid off for 7 months but last month her paycheck was $8290 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read more on this web site... LazyCash5.[com]

CallahanRoger
CallahanRoger

my neighbor's mom makes $68 every hour on the internet. She has been laid off for 7 months but last month her paycheck was $8290 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read more on this web site... LazyCash5.[com]

CallahanRoger
CallahanRoger

my classmate's step-aunt makes $79/hour on the computer. She has been fired from work for 6 months but last month her pay was $8922 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this site... http://5573.ulinks.net

Ihateusc
Ihateusc

what do you expect of kids whose parents are laborers and maids? just send them directly from middle school to jail and cut the pretense that they will amount to anything...

Inquiry2
Inquiry2

This is crap!!!!! Most of these parents are illegal and their kids speak little to no English at home. They suck up tax dollars which should be given to American students and they run back to Mexico when they need an escape but everyone else is doomed to their fate. Schools are in fact bad- I agree but one of the reasons they are bad in California is because we are trying to educate Mexico's citizens. We should send them the bill. Education involves: the parent, the student, and the teacher. But it seems that this parent only believes the the teacher is to blame. I ask a very simple question: what is she doing to help her child other than blame the teacher. And I know this parent, she speaks no English and she is not involved in her daughter's education directly. She is being used for this sham operation "Parent Revolution".

baseball junkie
baseball junkie

LA Weekly, LA Times, what the difference? You guys keep putting up a negative attack on teachers and our union blaming us for children and their parents for making little or no effort to learn or the corrupt garbage our district admin are always up to . why am I and other teachers only be held accountable. My son is in school, my wife and I think we have something to do with his emense success. However, I also give credit to his teachers and his school. Why is school reform not focusing on everyone involved in our students' education? Why because broad, gates and others want to make money privatizing public schools.

Mike Kristiansen
Mike Kristiansen

Out of the thousands of schools in CA, only 1300 have been failing for 3-4 years in a row. The rest are closer to meeting minimum standards than being exemplary. So, paying 40-80K to teachers and a lot more to administrator types is a lot for taxpayers to be paying for the quality of and number of students ready and able to succeed in a world that depends on quality education. The very idea of schools set up like ill run factories short changing students has been enough to get everyone upset. It's not the parents or the teachers per se, it is working with an antiquated learning system that does not work today. If all sides would be willing to change the system to match with the way children learn best, parents and teachers would see positive results and gain renewed respect for each other. Students first. Parents and Teachers second.

Bruce_William_Smith
Bruce_William_Smith

Those parents learning about their options would do well to read Peg Tyre's "The Good School", or at least the Parent Revolution's policy director should. It is timely, and directed exactly at this task: helping newly empowered parents make good choices about their kids' educations, given the myriad new options presenting themselves. An informed public is necessary to make this new market work; otherwise parents could be easily deceived by sharpies with something other than the kids' interests at heart, something no self-respecting citizen would want.

rdsathene
rdsathene

Bravo. Ms. Wilson once again reasserts her ability to cheerlead for the most reactionary right-wing ideas.

Here's something that will confuse you libertarian dolts:

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolb...

 
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