Monica Ratliff and Antonio Sanchez Throw Support Behind Current Superintendent and Creating Quality School Options, Split on Approach to Teacher Retention and School Improvement Strategies

May 13, 2013 (Los Angeles)— School board candidates Monica Ratliff and Antonio Sanchez both expressed their support for Superintendent Deasy but split on how they would approach transforming low performing schools and retaining talented teachers and leaders at hard-to-staff schools, in an exclusive interview made available today by Educators 4 Excellence Los Angeles and EdVoice. With just one week remaining until Election Day, the run-off candidates participated in a podcast interview to lay out their visions for Los Angeles’ public schools.

“This is a critical moment for public education in Los Angeles and the winner of this run-off election will be a deciding vote when it comes to the future direction of our schools. Residents in the Valley have exciting choices—Monica, a teacher in LAUSD, and Antonio, a graduate of LAUSD, who bring very different perspectives and approaches on leadership,” said Ama Nyamekye, Executive Director of Educators 4 Excellence - Los Angeles. “We broadcasted this interview so that our members and the public could all access the candidates to better understand their choices for School Board.”

Listen to the podcast here.

By Barbara Jones

The personnel files stretched the length of the 15-foot conference table in Superintendent John Deasy's office, a chronicle of the corporal punishment, verbal and physical abuse and sexual misconduct reported in the classrooms of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Cuts and bruises. Curses and racial slurs. Caresses and pornography.

In the past, the misdeeds detailed in the teachers' files would likely have earned the offender a disciplinary memo, maybe a week's suspension, perhaps a transfer to another school.

Today, they're grounds for firing.

The school district says a decision by a state panel — determining there was test-score cheating but the teacher shouldn't be fired — sends the wrong message.

By Howard Blume

The job of veteran teacher Ricardo Gonzales was on the line before a state review panel.

He's a respected elementary school instructor who tutors students and coaches soccer on his own time.

But the L.A. Unified School District wanted to fire him for allegedly cheating to boost the test scores of his students.

By Kimberly Beltran

California’s State Board of Education raised some major red flags Wednesday over changes being considered to the state’s K-12 school accountability system, leaving in question the next steps for updating the system.

Mike Kirst, board president, even questioned whether a revised API could continue to serve as a viable measuring tool.

“In baseball, you have a batting average, you have a runs-batted-in average, you have an on-base percentage and other measures and you don’t put them all together and say this is the performance index of the hitter – they’re separate things,” Kirst said. “I think we get in trouble when we start mixing apples and oranges and bananas, throw them into a blender and get a single number.”