Saturday, December 28, 2013

Interviewing my Replacement


Early in my career, someone told me that the best way to gain perspective on your job is to (1) update your resume, (2) meet with prospective clients, and (3) interview replacements.  It’s not as grim as it sounds.  The process of writing your resume forces you to think about what you’ve accomplished and what you’ve learned.  Similarly, selling to prospects and forces you to articulate what your organization does well, and lets you hear from others what about areas that might be blind spots in your own perception of your team.  Interviewing job candidates forces you to think about how others might fill in those gaps and perhaps bring a fresh perspective to the team.

This past December brought several opportunities to do all of the above.  In my day job, I run the client services team at a SaaS billing provider.  I was chatting with a client about my “night job” on the Board, and had a very interesting discussion about how the skills from both jobs cross-pollinate.  Someone I met in my professional life thought I came across as “quiet”, and they wondered if I’d hold my own in a room with strongly held views.  I laughed – out loud- at that, before explaining the back story to my role on the school board.  Both my day job and my role on the school board involve working across a diverse set of interests to forge a shared vision for where we want to go.  When is the right time to the course and focus, and when is it time to shake up the status quo?  We did a bit of both this past fall when we introduced extended day kindergarten.  There are many other examples, and I’m thrilled with the work were doing.

Also in December, I had the chance to attend our New Family Orientation Night.  This is a chance for families who are new to our community to come hear about LASD.  Most of these folks have a child entering kindergarten, but it’s also good for families who have recently moved into our area.  Watching the presentations gave me a great feeling of pride in how far we’ve come over the past 4 years.  New parents are excited to hear about our STEM program, about how we tailor instruction to each student, and about the achievements as they compete at the state and national level in pursuits as wide-ranging as chess and mathematics to drama and dance.  Our children are wonderfully successful in life, and I like to think that is in part because we’ve given them a fantastic start.

I’ve also spent some time over the past month handing over the reins to Tammy Logan, who is now our new Board President.  Tammy has been a great colleague over the past 4 years.  We don’t always agree on the issues, but I can honestly say that she challenges me in ways that forces me to articulate carefully what I believe and why.  That kind of honest debate serves LASD well, and I’m sure she’ll do a great job as our new leader.  Looking further down the road, there will be an election in November 2014, and there are three seats up for election.  If you’re thinking about running, this is a great time to reach out to Trustees and ask them about their service on the Board.   I have no idea who might run for re-election, and who might step down, but our community is fortunate to have a very deep pool of talent from which we can draw.  If you are passionate about public education, and you’re willing to work for the students who attend LASD schools, I’d encourage you to consider running.  It’s a great way to serve the community.  In the meantime, I have another year on my term, and I’m going to enjoy working with our team to continue revolutionizing learning for all students.  I want to express my gratitude to the many, many people who have given me their support this year, and I look forward to continuing to earn that trust and support in 2014.

 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

2014-15 BCS Facilities Process


 I wrote recently about the activities of BCS, but I neglected to mention that we have received their facilities request for 2014-15.  Once again they have asked that the District close Covington as a district school and give that space to BCS.  We will be discussing their request at the Board meeting this Tuesday evening, Nov 12th.

I will be encouraging the board to continue to conduct very open, public discussions about the facilities options.  We need to have a robust debate, with all views represented.  We've heard from the BCS board what they want.  I'll be interested to hear from BCS parents (do they prefer that we close a district school, or do they think there is a better option?)  I'll also want to hear from LASD parents- are they willing to close a district school for the sake of peace in our community, or is that too high a price to pay?

This weekend someone said to me that their circle of friends felt like the trustees always "figure it out in the end", and that there won't be a school closure.  I want to emphasize to folks that every year is a new and distinct process.  Each year we start with a clean slate, and evaluate the request with an open view to how to address it.  We have already argued this in court- that the annual requests are distinct from one another, and that as facts change, we will need  to debate them anew.  And so, I look forward to hearing from people about how they think we should proceed.

The facilities timeline and docs are below:

Date
Action
Documents
Nov 1
BCS submits request for facilities, incl. enrollment forecast and preferred location.
Dec 1
LASD provides counter-projection to enrollment
Jan 1
BCS responds to counter-projection
Feb 1
LASD provides preliminary facilities offer (draft)
 
Mar 1
BCS responds to draft offer
April 1
LASD provides final facilities offer
July 1
LASD adjusts classroom space based on final district budget for upcoming school year
(Note:  This is a negotiated step, not part of the Prop 39 process.)
(This agreement has expired, so I don’t anticipate making this adjustment this year.)

I look forward to hearing from you at the next Board meeting.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

BCS - new lawsuit, other items

It often feels like our time is consumed by the BCS issue.  I'm so pleased that our staff is able to focus heavily on our students, and I try to write about that work as much as I can.  While BCS continues to consume a great deal of Board time, we are doing some fantastic things in the classroom.  However, I do still want to keep people posted on what's going on with BCS, and it's time for an update.


Negotiations
The Long Term negotiating teams did meet last night, and also on Oct 30.  Some progress has been made, but there remain some significant "sticking points".  I cannot yet predict whether these discussions will bear fruit.  We will continue to take video and post them to the District website for those who are interested in watching the sessions. 

All of the video can be found here


FO/FUA Violations
Next week at the Board meeting, we will be holding a public hearing on how to address the BCS violations of the terms of the Final Offer, and the Facilities Use Agreement that they signed.  One BCS Board member has been quoted in the MV Voice as saying that they have not violated the terms of the agreement, and BCS Board Chair Ken Moore has accused the district of "inventing its own alternate reality".  We have had BCS parents speaking in open session of our board meeting, admitting to BCS actions in violation of the FO/FUA and substantial evidence from the community and staff of the numerous violations.  The Courts have already ruled that the conditions we imposed were legal, so the only question remaining is what we should do about it.  I will be very interested to see if BCS has any light they can shed on this, but I don't think the District are the ones not inhabiting reality.

Here is the notification we sent to them for the hearing
and the recent MV Voice Article
and the Town Crier Article


New Lawsuit
Finally, we received service today of another lawsuit from BCS.  (we receive notice it was coming on Nov 1, along with the facilities request for next year).  Once again they are using CEQA to challenge District actions.  I find this an odd disconnect.  In the negotiations, BCS Board members have told us that we have the ability to essentially ignore CEQA and do whatever we want.  In these lawsuits, though, they allege that we haven't followed it properly.  That's a very strange set of positions to take.  This latest lawsuit from BCS challenges the placement of a portable on the Egan campus, in space not used by BCS.  That building is used to conduct classes for special needs students.  I don't think I could conceive of a n action from BCS that would paint them in a less flattering light.  Start with a law BCS is currently violating, a law which they claim the district has the power to ignore.  Use that law to attack services we provide for a group of students that not only need additional services, but are part of a legally protected group (special needs).   Top that off with community allegations that BCS doesn't serve that same group of students.

I can't imagine what their highly paid PR firm must think of all of this, but I sure wouldn't want to have to explain it to the public if I were in their shoes.  (cue the music to mission:Impossible)

Here is the paperwork for the lawsuit
Bullis Summons
Verified Petition for Writ of Mandate (the actual lawsuit)
Notice of Election to Prepare the Administrative Record
Notice of Related Case  (asks the court to join this lawsuit with the existing CEQA lawsuit)
Civil Case Cover Sheet
Notice to the Attorney General
Proof of Service

   

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Coming Soon: Extended Day Kindergarten

Last night the Trustees approved an expansion of our kindergarten program to include an extended day option.  This capped weeks of meetings, discussions, and countless emails & community communications.  We're very excited about the changes.

The final form of the program will continue to evolve over the next several months.  Asst. Supt. Of Curriculum and Instruction Nancy Davis will be leading the team to finalize how it all works.  There a few key points, though, based on the many discussions we've had so far:
  • Go Deep.  The program will focus on allowing kids to explore, to go deeper into content.  This is specifically not an attempt to "cram more into the day". 
  • Half Day Option   There will be an option for parents who want to have their child attend half-day kinder also.  We heard from quite a few parents who didn't want a full day program, and we are intent on meeting those needs also.
  • Help those who need it.  One thing we have seen with the pilot we've been running at Gardner is that English language learners see a benefit from this program through about third grade.  It's not a permanent advantage, but it does seem to help, so they will benefit from it.
  • Challenge those who can.  At the other end of the scale, we have a number of exceptionally bright children who arrive ready to learn, and ready to challenge themselves.  We are excited to work with those kids to help them get their education off to a fantastic start by allowing them to explore their interests and capitalize on their natural curiosity.
We will continue to discuss this program over coming board meetings.  One area of interest for me is to see how we define our measurable outcomes.  The benefits of EDK are expected to be as much social/ emotional as educational.  Mrs. Davis and her team will be considering how they plan to measure those outcomes to ensure we are gaining the best value for the money being spent.

I'm excited about this program, because it represents a modest change but one that the community clearly supports.  My communications were running about 20:1 in favor of EDK.  I will look forward to hearing from those parents about the experience as their children move through our first EDK program.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

New School Year, Same Old PR Stunts

Once again, BCS has proven they are willing to use children to create PR stunts.

In the summer of 2012, BCS refused to answer questions about student furniture.  As a result, LASD was forced to make decisions about where to put furniture for the BCS students.  Shortly after school started, BCS then hired expensive luxury coaches to take students over to the Blach campus for a photo op.  They snapped pictures of kids on the floor, and then ran to court, asking the judge to condemn LASD for failing to provide adequate equipment for BCS.  Fortunately, LASD had a full record of the discussions, including email history showing that BCS had intentionally stalled.  The courts saw through the charade and threw the complaint out.

Fast forward to this year. 

The facilities offer for 2013-14 is specifically crafted to provide complete facilities for BCS K-5 students at the Egan campus, and complete facilities for BCS 6-8 students at Blach.  There are enough classrooms, flex space, library space, offices, and yes, playground space and asphalt play space for all BCS K-5 students at the Egan facility, and similarly we've made appropriate arrangements to share space for BCS middle school students at Blach.  The Final Offer spells all of this out.  BCS agreed to this condition when they signed the Facilities Use Agreement for the school year.  Knowing all of this, and fully aware that they've legally agreed NOT to take K-3 students to Blach, BCS chose to do it anyway.  So what happened?

BCS took photos of children playing where they aren't supposed to be playing, and then blames LASD for the situation.  They've run another full page ad in the Town Crier, complaining that LASD hasn't properly shared facilities.  Of course they fail to mention that those exact same kids have an empty playground just a few miles away.

At some level, I'm amazed that parents tolerate this.  I have school-aged kids of my own.  I would be furious if the school to which I'd entrusted them took my children to a facility that is not properly prepared for them.  I'd be even more outraged if I realized that my child was being used by a highly paid PR firm as nothing more than an extra in a photo shoot designed to mislead the public in my own community.

This trick was a bad idea last time, and the courts saw right through it.  Does the BCS PR team really think so little of our community that you'd try the same trick all over again?


Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Differentiated Instruction - For Real!

Even as a Trustee, I've been wondering how "differentiated" we can really get in a classroom.  it's one thing if you're working with a student 1:1, but what do you really do in a classroom full of kids?  Fortunately, I had a chance to answer this question this week- I was invited to come observe Christina Shilling's 5th grade math class over at Springer.  Poor Ms. Shilling didn't get much warning, since Principal Spenader invited me over the weekend, and I showed up first thing Monday morning, but she was glad to have me, and I really enjoyed the time.

So, what does it mean when we talk about differentiated instruction?  Really, what we're trying to do is customize the learning to the needs of each child.  Some examples:

During "warm-ups", each child was asked to do 5 problems that Ms. Shilling had written on the board.  Some kids pulled out a notebook with paper.  Others worked on small whiteboards on their desks.  Others stood and worked at whiteboards on the walls around the room.  Little things like this let the child be most comfortable and still focus on the work.

After warm-ups, the kids dove into some problems.  Some children preferred to work mostly alone.  Others talked quietly with neighbors about how to do the problems.  Some dove into Khan Academy on ChromeBooks (Thanks, Google!)  Ms Shilling also worked with a small group in one corner.  I have to admit, I was surprised to see kids sitting on beanbag chairs and laying on carpet, but all across the room, they were engaged in the math. She even had a great poster up to remind kids of how to work together



"Differentiation" doesn't end at the physical, though.  It's actually much more relevant in the material itself.  To solve the problems, the class was encouraged to try 4 different ways to do long division.  Some kids like the classic form, and others opted for the alternate methods.  The kids used at least 2 techniques, and then cross-checked the answers.  Then, they wrote up a word problem to fit around the math they'd just done.  Finally, they wrote an explanation of the techniques they used, and why they liked it.

Throughout the hour I was there, I heard the quiet cheers of excitement "Yes!  I got it!", and "Thanks" to a teammate who helped out.  Kids who pushed through the original material were quickly challenged with newer, deeper material.  Kids who hadn't yet mastered the content had many "teachers" from whom they could draw help. What struck me was the way the kids all found different ways to interact with the material.  But at the end of the class, they'd all mastered some new skills in math.  That's what it's really all about.

Well done, Ms. Shilling!  And congrats to all of the LASD teachers who make sure to reach our kids, and push them to achieve their personal best.

Legislative Updates

A quick update on a couple of laws that crossed Jerry Brown's Desk recently.

AB484 was signed, which allows the State to suspend API (STAR Testing) for this year.  With the broader move to Common Core, using an outdated test didn't make much sense.  Indeed, LASD has already seen that our own teaching is more in line with the future (Common Core) and so the older assessments are not as relevant.

AB375 was vetoed, which is also a good thing.  This bill was touted as a reform to the teacher dismissal policy, but the final version really weakened the ability of school districts to address performance issues.  I'm pleased to say that our relationship with our staff has meant that this isn't typically an issue in our District, but it's good to see public education headed in the right direction overall.

Neither of these is earth-shaking, but they are relevant, and we do occasionally get asked about what's going on at the state level.  These are two bills we'd been tracking, so I thought I'd share with everyone.


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Welcome, education innovators!

The Poway School District is building a new PK-8 school known as the "Design 39 Campus".  The school itself is focused on revolutionizing learning, so we take it as a great compliment that the principal and staff are coming to LASD to talk with us about how we do staff development.  Staff from Milpitas are also planning to attend the meetings.

This isn't a "big" thing, but it's important for folks to understand that LASD is out there on the leading edge.  I've spoken previously about how other schools seek to learn more about our practices and roll them into their own programs.  That's part of what we do as a public entity- we share best practices.  Welcome, Poway, and Milpitas!  We hope to learn from you also, and to exchange exciting ideas.


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

MacGyver vs. Bond (Thoughts from Blach)

One of the interesting things about being on the Board is that I get to see the weekly newsletters from all of our schools.  Sandra McGonagle over at Blach always has an inspring story to lead off her newsletter.  I've asked her permission and may occasionally share some of her thoughts, because she's really tuned in to what's going on in kids.  I loved this one because I think it speaks to the change in how we need to prepare our students for the real world..

Blach Banner News
09.26.13
Dear Blach Families,

Not sure if you know this, but I am a pop culture junkie. I love clever references and was recently thrilled to watch a TED talk about the problem solving skills our kids need today that had a great link to two of my favorite pop culture icons, 007 and MacGyver. Marc Chun, an Education Program Officer at the Hewlett Foundation, gave a convincing talk about the need for our kids to be able to transfer their learned skills and knowledge throughout life to solve problems.

When we look at the problem solving skills of James Bond, they are fairly predictable. At the beginning of each film, Q gives Bond a few nifty new tools. It might be an exploding pen, decoding device, or a tape recorder hidden in a camera. At some point throughout the movie, each of these tools is used just in the nick of time. From my experience, this is how much of the problem solving experience at school works. Students might be taught a new strategy or skill and then be given a problem to solve. It’s effective and necessary, but it’s not that exciting.

Cut to MacGyver now. Mac always had a Swiss Army knife and some basic supplies on him, but his genius was in the area of creative thinking. When a problem arose, he was quick on his feet to scan his surroundings and jerry rig some random supplies into something that saved the day. Our kids need to know how to solve problems in this way as well. They should have an entire tool kit of skills and knowledge to choose from and use what works best to solve the problem at hand. In my opinion, this is much more real world than the world of Bond.

Here’s to having both 007 and MacGyver skills!

Sandra

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Thanks for the support

Over the past 24 hours I've heard from a number of people who wanted to express their outrage at the BCS press release issued yesterday.  People who attended the meeting know I didn't say what BCS alleges.  (For those who didn't attend, the video is up on the District website.)  I reached out to BCS yesterday for confirmation of the release, but they have not replied.  In any case, I appreciate the words of encouragement from so many folks.  Trust me, my skin is thick enough that this kind of crap is annoying, but it won't dissuade me from taking the right path.

Some have suggested that I should take legal action against BCS.  I haven't made up my mind yet.  The press release contains intentionally false and misleading statements.  Frankly, I thought that our community was above such smear campaigns. 

Regardless of their poor handling of me in the press release, I'm much more concerned about the quotes attributed to their Board members.  LASD is investing a tremendous amount of time and energy considering BCS's request for short-term improvements to their facilities offer.  Those requests would have significant impact on the broader community.  Lobbing caustic quotes into the public during that process does not build support for their position.  Further, the District has been crystal clear that our willingness to support changes to the current facilities agreement are tied to the BCS willingness to cooperate with us on a long term facilities solution.  Comments like this do not build confidence in the general public, and indicate a combative mindset from BCS.  I can only hope that cooler heads will prevail at some point.

Again, though, I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of support.  It is ironic that in their attempt to vilify me, BCS has triggered a strong showing of support.


Saturday, September 7, 2013

It's all in your persepctive

I've been thinking a lot about communication lately- how people view problems, and how their perspective impacts the way they view what is being communicated.  In my day job, I run a professional services practice, and this is second nature.  If we communicate the same information to a large number of clients, I know that some clients will react differently based on their own view and how the information is affected by where they are in their respective businesses.  This really came home to me when I watched two of our teams describe their perceptions of the same interaction.  Folks from both sides viewed it through their own specific lens- their role in our organization.

This was interesting, but it became a sort of epiphany this week as I was watching the videos of the first two LASD-BCS negotiation sessions.  For those who are interested in the videos, they can be found here:

Video 1: August 27th meeting
Video 2:  Thursday, August 29th meeting

There's an exchange at the end of the second meeting where BCS Board members are questioning the need for the detailed CEQA study, and LASD Board members are pushing back.  It got me thinking about the different perspectives at the table.

BCS is a charter school.  They are, by definition, not encumbered by most of the regulations that apply to traditional school districts.  Hence, it shouldn't surprise us when BCS board members are skeptical of the detailed process we have to follow.  They don't live in that same world, so they don't have the first-hand experience that compels us to be process-driven on issues like this.

Likewise, their leadership is appointed, not elected.  They feel that their ultimate accountability is whether or not parents choose to enroll students at the school.  This gives them the flexibility to do what the directors feel is right, and then see whether people continue to attend. 

The District operates very differently.  This isn't to say "better"- I'm simply highlighting how our operating environments drive different behaviors. 

LASD is not a charter school, so we have a lot of regulations that apply to us.  It's been estimated that charter schools only have to worry about 25% of the EdCode in California.  That means LASD has 4x the regulations that we deal with every day.  It is no wonder, then, that our institutional memory drives us to follow detailed processes.  That's not to say we don't innovate- we do, and we are very proud of the work that happens in our classrooms.  However, we also have to make sure we keep up with the myriad requirements from the State and Federal Government that are part of our daily existence.

The other piece is that we're an elected board, and we're driven by that connection to the broader community.  As mentioned above, a charter school is more-or-less accountable only to the parents of kids who attend.  LASD has enjoyed an extremely supportive relationship with the entire community- they support parcel taxes and bond measures, parents and community members volunteer as art docents and library assistants and lunch servers, and they participate fully in the process of running our schools.    In order to maintain this support, we are very careful to be extremely open, to include the broad community in all that we do. 

As a simple example, the LASD Blueprint Process intentionally included members of the public and folks who don't have kids in our schools.  When BCS did their strategic planning, they focused on input from existing parents.  The differences in how we operate drives the differences in our behaviors.

I'm not sure where to go with all of this.  It helps me think about their behaviors, and hopefully they'll understand our frame of reference too.  I don't yet know how we can help their board members understand our operating environment (other than continuing to explain it), but I'm going to be thinking about it.  In addressing this difference in our perspectives, we might find a way for us to bridge the gaps in our expectations.


Saturday, August 31, 2013

API Scores and Student Testing,

This week the State of California released API scores.  This annual rite has dominated focus on school performance for the past decade, with parents and homeowners looking to see how the local schools have performed, and how they stack up against surrounding districts.  LASD has fared very well in this annual "keeping up with the Joneses" race- we post some of the highest API scores in the State, and we have managed to do what some would deem unachievable- our program is consistently strong across every single school we operate.  Our community has taken great pride in this for many years.

The bar is shifting, though, and I am hopeful that it will be an improvement.  I see two problems with the current API-based system:
  1. We are already at the top of the scale, so the measures don't tell us much at an aggregate level.  Anyone with a background in statistics can tell you that the difference between 984 and 988 is insignificant.  That is where we are in the current testing process.
  2. The scores are a narrow measure of success.  The current tests measure memorization more than comprehension, and simple fact regurgitation over intellectual curiosity.  We demand much more for our kids, so it would seem logical then that we embrace a way to measure whether we are achieving that.
So, how do we make it better?  There are a few changes coming, driven at the national, state and local levels.

Most folks are aware of the roll-out of Common Core standards.  Along with most of the rest of the country, California is adopting a new set of standards for how children need to learn and what we need to teach them.  Common Core emphasizes comprehension and skills over specific memorization. The measures are geared towards ensuring students have the skills necessary to thrive in a knowledge economy.  That seems so obvious here in the Silicon Valley, but in other parts of the country, it's been a huge debate.  As an example, Common Core focuses on having students design an experiment in science over just repeating steps laid out in a text book.  This type of shift is valuable for all students, and it's something we've been focusing on at LASD for quite a while. 

At the state level, there are funding changes coming in the form of the Local Control Funding Formula.  This new bill is designed to shift the way that funds are allocated to school districts while not penalizing existing districts.  LASD will come out pretty much the same on the funding side.  However, this bill also decreases the weighting of API scores and starts to emphasize other measures that are also important indicators of success, like parental involvement and communications to the community.  Close followers of LASD will recognize many of these components from our Blueprint Process.  The District often talks about being a leader in revolutionizing learning- this is a great example.  Most of the things the state has added to the measurement system are things we specifically called out in the blueprint process several years ago.  We are, once again, leading the pack.

For those who want to go deeper on this, there's a good article in EdSource that talks about these measures in more detail.  I particularly liked their infographic:



At the local level, though, we're not content with this.  We continue to work on improved measurements.  The District has a Blueprint goal this year of identifying the next wave of measurements we want to track.  We may work with other high-achieving districts, or we may forge ahead and blaze the trail once again.  The key takeaway, though, is that we want to constantly improve our program for our students.  To do so means finding accurate ways of assessing our position, then making changes to enhance the program to continually deliver better results.

You don't get to be #1 by being satisfied with where you are.  You don't stay #1 by resting on your accomplishments.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Professionals, through and through

"You Play Like You Practice."  

 It's an old saying from sports, and anyone who has played a sport has probably heard the coach say that a few times to inspire hard work during a long string of practices.

So, how do our teachers "practice"?  Most folks, when they think of teacher professional development, think of a couple of in-service days during the school year.  Maybe you even know when they fall in the calendar.  It looks something like this:





Many folks would look at that and not think much of it- and I admit, I wouldn't be impressed either, unless you really know what our teachers are doing.  On Monday this week, Nancy Davis (former Almond Principal and our new Asst. Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction) presented to the Board on the training plan for this fall.  Here is just one part of the plan:



Holy cow!  Take a look at those dates!  Literally, our teachers are engaged in continued professional development on a near continual basis!  Throughout the fall, sometimes several meetings within the same week, LASD teachers gather and hone their craft -- all in the name of improving the student experience.

It's worth pointing out that while the formal professional development days on the calendar are paid events, the iLearn academy is not.  These after-school classes are completely voluntary.  Yet last year we offered more than 80 hours of development courses, and nearly half of our staff attended (attendance ramped up over the year, as word got out how great the courses really are). We expect to build on that trend again this year, and we're already planning a conference- open to educators from all over- for next summer.

If you're interested in the full presentation we saw this week, you can find it here:
(pdf presentation)

Nancy's actual presentation to the board will be posted here, along with the archive of all of our recent board meetings.  (video archive)

I'm incredibly proud of our staff for their hard work and their desire to constantly improve their tradecraft.  It takes amazing dedication to our students to stay committed to this type of training while still ensuring that each child in your classroom is getting the personalized education they deserve.  Well done, LASD teachers!

It's a nice footnote that we are investigating putting these courses online/video so that teachers in other districts can also benefit.  Being leaders in revolutionizing learning isn't just about teaching our own kids- it's about figuring out what works well, and sharing those practices with others.