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U.S. Education Department Announces Civil Rights Review of English Learner Students In Los Angeles
Pete Farruggio Comment: Here comes trouble. Now the OCR will become an enforcement tool for the standardistas' teacher bashing campaign.
Russlynn Ali was the director of Education West (an affiliate of the treacherous Ed Trust), for a decade, during which she eagerly acted as a front for her organization's conservative foundations puppet masters by using a bogus civil rights rhetoric to advocate for more severe testing policies and teacher bashing. Watch out, because now she has state power.
Prediction: the OCR review will conclude that these underserved kids need behaviorist, scripted curricula and non-union teachers who will follow orders and "deliver" those curricula.
Ohanian Comment: Russlyn Ali: The Broad Foundation moves to the White House. Selected by Pres. Barack Obama as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Ali was previously founding director Education Trust West. Before that Ali, an attorney, was employed by The Children's Defense Fund and before that as assistant director of policy and research at the Broad Foundation, for which she was also on loan as chief of staff to the president of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Education. She has served on the Review Board for The Broad Prize for Urban Education. She was a fellow of the Aspen Institute's New Schools Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Fellowship.
Notable Remark: [Denying students who fail the exit test the right to graduate with their peers] is the truly compassionate path. An alternative to the exit exam ends up being a way out, an escape valve to give adults a free pass when it comes to educating high school students.
--San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 7, 2006
Affirmation: I like Ed Trust West head Russlynn Ali, we've eaten together, had drinks, she’s met my wife, seen my children, she used to work with Kevin Carey who now works with me, I think we share funders but I'm not sure. . . --Andrew Rotherham, Eduwonk, Feb. 16, 2008
PRESS RELEASES
LOS ANGELES -- Two days after Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
announced plans to step up enforcement of civil rights law on behalf of
students in a speech in Selma, Ala., the U.S. Department of Education
announced its first formal civil rights enforcement action.
The department will examine the academic opportunities and access of English
Learner (EL) students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
to assess whether they are being denied equal educational opportunities.
The Los Angeles compliance review is one of a series of activities that a
reinvigorated Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will be undertaking in coming
months. L.A. School Superintendent Ramon Cortines is cooperating with the
department's review.
Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali said, "We welcome
his support and applaud his readiness to better serve EL students. We all
understand that when one group of students is struggling, we are morally
and legally obliged to take action."; Ali said that only three
percent of EL students in LAUSD high schools are proficient in math and
English, and the district's programs have not undergone a civil
rights compliance review for more than a decade.
OCR will assess whether LAUSD provides EL students with an effective
program of English language development and meaningful access to core
curricular content. The review will also examine whether the district
regularly evaluates the implementation and effectiveness of the EL
program and communicates effectively with parents of EL students.
"At this time, we have reached no conclusion as to whether any
violations of federal law exist," Assistant Secretary Ali
emphasizes. "But the number of EL students and children of color in
Los Angeles is large. It is critical that all students in the district
receive equal access to a quality education. If civil rights violations
are found, we will seek to put an end to them promptly."
Ali will discuss the new compliance review in three forums in Los Angeles
on March 10, including a stakeholders forum at 1:30 p.m. at the Los
Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce; a press conference at the Chamber at
3:15 p.m. with Superintendent Cortines; and a special town hall event
from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Saint Anne's Conference Center.
"I am looking forward to learning about Los Angeles' programs
for EL learners," says Ali. "In today's information
age, America has to both raise the bar for student learning and close the
achievement gap -- anything less is economically unsustainable and
morally unacceptable."
— Press Release with Pete Farruggio comment
US Department of Education
2010-03-10
http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010/03/03102010.html
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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