History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
The Latest from IDEA
A newsfeed on the most current research, news, and events at IDEA.
Jan. 29: Oral history series highlights Council leader
Antero Garcia, graduate student researcher working with IDEA's Council of Youth Research, was highlighted in NPR's StoryCorps series.
"Dropout has thanks, not blame, for teacher" aired Sunday on NPR's Weekend Edition as part of the National Teachers' Initiative, which relates stories of public school teachers across the country. The initiative is part of StoryCorps, an American oral history nonprofit.
Garcia, a teacher at Manual Arts High School in East Los Angeles, was reunited with a former student who had dropped out of high school in his senior year.
Roger Ramos, now 22, was asked if anything could have been done differently that would have helped him stay in school.
"...you were a good teacher, and I always respected you," Ramos said of Garcia. "Some teachers, I kind of felt like they only wanted to teach a certain group of people. But you looked at me and you paid attention.
"Maybe it didn't get me to graduate, but there's a lot of teachers, they don't take the time to take a look. And it was never your fault."
Listen to the full conversation.
New information on high school reform
A new Q&A on Linked Learning has been uploaded to our site.
For those interested in high school reform and want to learn a more about this approach that connects academics with real-world applications, visit our Linked Learning page. There you'll find links to the new Q&A and upcoming research.
UCLA IDEA will soon publish a Linked Learning guidebook, based on our research of 10 sites throughout California.
Jan. 4: Changes to online 'Roundup'
Starting Wednesday, Jan. 4, the UCLA IDEA website will no longer post individual articles from the daily Education News Roundup.
A link from the IDEA Home page will be provided to the most current version of the Roundup.
The change will not affect subscribers who will continue to receive the Roundup and Themes in the News as a daily email. It will also continue to be available on Twitter @UCLA_IDEA and on Facebook.com/uclaidea.
The website will also stop archiving past news stories, opinions and blogs. Anyone interested in finding a past copy of the Roundup or story, can contact Claudia Bustamante at 310-267-4408 or bustamante@gseis.ucla.edu.
Read today's roundup here.
Dec. 16: California's 'Parent Trigger' law draws international attention
England-based Times Education Supplement wrote about the growing U.S. movement of giving parents more power in reforming low-performing schools.
California was the first state to pass a Parent Trigger law, allowing parents to seek one of four reform options if more than half families at low-performing schools sign a petition. Last year, parents at Compton's McKinley Elementary were the first to "pull the trigger."
UCLA IDEA John Rogers was interviewed for the piece, The view from here - California, US - "Trigger law" allows parents to call the shots. He was particularly concerned with the trigger/gun metaphor. "Rather than encouraging parents and educators to collaborate in the search for solutions, it pits one against the other. Rogers understands why parents are angry, but fears the focus on a one-time mobilisation offers only an illusion of power," according to the article.
Read full article here.
Oct. 9: Should schools share the money they fundraise?
Should schools share their fundraising profits with others in their districts whose families cannot afford to do the same?
That was the main question tackled by Davis-based Jill Duman, "a journalist, parent and part-time playground attendant," in an opinion piece in Sunday's Sacramento Bee.
The point is to give all students quality and equitable schooling. When bake sale dollars are being used to hire teacher aides, refurbish computers, maintain arts programs, better-off schools will be able to fill in the holes where the state and federal budgets have not.
"To me, it speaks to an erosion of the principle that public schools are going to be funded through a common public fund, that no matter what town you are in, you are going to have the same chance to be successful," said IDEA Director John Rogers.
As IDEA noted in our 2011 Educational Opportunity Report, there is a great discrepancy in the amount of fundraising between low-, middle- and high-income communities. Schools with high poverty (noted by the number of students in free- or reduced-price lunch program) raised an average of $5,000, whereas more well-off schools raised up to $100,000.
According to Duman, this reality prompted one Northern California school district to change its policy so that money raised at any one of its three elementary schools would be shared equally. But others think hard-earned funds should stay with the students, parents and campus that fundraised for them.
Read the full op-ed: The Conversation: Should the haves share the dollars they raise with the have-nots?
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