Mid-year Report 2018 single page

RAISING PARENT VOICES IN LAUSD SPEAK UP MIDYEAR REPORT 2018

PROBLEM Kids don’t have unions, and kids don’t have lobbyists.

Kids have parents, and parents don’t have a voice in the public education system.

SOLUTION Parents are the only constituency whose sole interest is the success of kids. Speak UP is a grassroots organization of Los Angeles parents who want a more powerful voice in education policy.

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Speak UP engages, educates and activates parents and community members to advocate for excellent, equitable public education at their children’s schools, in their communities, with elected representatives, and at the ballot box.

THE FACTS ABOUT LAUSD Reading Proficiency LAUSD 2017 FACT More than 60% of LAUSD students cannot read at grade level, and there is a persistent achievement gap.

50%

25%

White

75%

Latino

75%

African American

Asian

100%

66%

FACT LAUSD’s neediest neighborhoods are home to its lowest performing schools.

33%

30%

0%

For example, out of 72 elementary and middle schools in LAUSD Board District 1, four schools meet state goals in reading and math. Forty-two schools are rated in the lowest two categories in both reading and math. The 42 failing schools serve 10 times as many students — most of whom are low-income — as the four high-performing schools.

School Performance in LAUSD Board District 1 Schools Meeting State Goals in ELA and Math

Schools in 2 Lowest Categories in ELA and Math

Number of Schools

4

42

Number of Students

2,110

23,121

Low-Income

20%

86%

English Learners

13%

33%

Source: CA Dept. Of Education Dashboard

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THE SPEAK UP STORY In 2016 a group of LAUSD parents, fed up with decades of too many low-performing schools and tired of feeling ignored by their LAUSD Board Members and District leaders, launched Speak UP to build a more powerful parent voice on behalf of kids. Alarmed to discover that parents don’t vote in elections that determine education policy, our first goal was to engage parents in the LAUSD Board elections. Our team of parent organizers played a significant role in electing a challenger to the two-term incumbent in Board District 4 by engaging hundreds of parents in the campaign in a dozen key schools.

Following the electoral success, Speak UP’s focus for the next two years is on advocacy, with three main streams of work:

1

PARENT ENGAGEMENT Expanding parent engagement beyond Board District 4 with a focus on developing parents into leaders for policy and electoral change at their schools and in their communities.

2

COMMUNICATIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA Establishing Speak UP as a major resource for information about LAUSD through digital and social media and a voice for education policy reform.

3

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ADVOCACY THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS Building partnerships and forging coalitions with like-minded organizations to advocate for a kids-first policy agenda.

WHERE WE WORK

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SPEAK UP’S IMPACT DEVELOPING PARENTS INTO LEADERS FOR EDUCATION REFORM Speak UP Parent Engagement Coordinators recruit parents to participate in leadership training workshops. Parents learn how to advocate for their own children at school, and for all children with key decision makers. Parents who complete a full series of workshops and participate in an action, such as testifying at monthly LAUSD Board Meetings, or advocating in person with the elected representatives, become part of our parent leadership teams. They help recruit other parents to take action as advocates and in electoral campaigns.

IMPACT: Since January 2018,

150

Speak UP parents have participated in 17 parent leadership workshops in LAUSD.

The Speak UP website has over

16,000

unique visitors— a 22% increase over 2017.

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A RESPECTED RESOURCE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT LAUSD Beginning in late 2017, Speak UP added new components to our digital and social media resources that significantly increased our reach. We launched Board Watch in the fall of 2017 to report on and analyze the proceedings at the LAUSD Board and implications for LAUSD policy. Our communications team covers every LAUSD Board meeting, posting reports on our Board Watch page and social media.

In January we added a Spanish Facebook Page and a Spanish language website, extending our outreach to the large segment of the LAUSD community whose first language is Spanish.

Our social media following and website visits have increased significantly as a result of these additions to our communications arsenal. Local and statewide opinion leaders, elected officials, major media outlets, and community leaders view Speak UP as a highly reliable and cogent resource for information and analysis about LAUSD’s most important issues.

Speak UP has over

2,200 Facebook followers — a 50% increase since January 2018.

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RAISING PARENT VOICES FOR POLICY CHANGE Speak UP Parents have advocated for: • • • •

Increasing parent voice in LAUSD A plan to address low-performing schools The legal rights of special needs students The rights of English Learners and their families

Speak UP parents are making a difference.

In April, the LAUSD Board passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Performance Framework for all schools in LAUSD. We view this as a first step toward instituting a fair and equitable accountability framework for the district.

IMPACT:

30+ Speak UP parents have testified before the LAUSD Board of Education and met with their elected representatives since January 2018.

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“I am begging LAUSD’s new superintendent to please overhaul the way LAUSD engages with parents. Talk to us, work with us, hear what we have to say. Treat us as partners, not enemies.

And as you consider changes, please include us at the start. Don’t just inform us later what you’re doing and call it parent engagement. Without big change, more of us will continue to leave.”

Speak UP Parent speaking to the School Board

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WHAT’S NEXT FOR SPEAK UP PARENT LEADERSHIP TRAINING AND PARENT TOOLKIT Goal: 200 parents will complete the three-tiered Speak UP Leadership Curriculum by June 2019.

Speak UP Parent Engagement Coordinators are creating a leadership-training curriculum and toolkit that will increase the effectiveness and impact of parent leadership teams to push LAUSD to implement a plan to address the persistent problem of low-performing schools in LAUSD. Parents will become effective spokespeople on behalf of their communities, initiate meetings with elected representatives and the Superintendent, and engage hundreds of their peers to take action.

Goal: 2,000 parents will complete the parent input survey to recommend criteria for an LAUSD School Report Card.

Speak UP parents want to know which schools are serving kids well and which ones are not. Most of all, they want to know how the District plans to deal with the many low-performing schools.

As part of the School Performance Framework, the District is required to create a rating system with a summative performance score for all LAUSD schools. To ensure that parent voices inform the outcome, Speak UP is developing a parent survey to query parents about the factors that they believe are most important to include in a school report card. The survey will also ask parents to identify additional aspects of a school’s culture, performance and academic focus that are important when making the best choices for their children. Speak UP will publish the results and present them to the School Board and Superintendent. Parents will work with their board members and the district to ensure that their input becomes part of the final product.

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ELECTORAL ENGAGEMENT: LOCAL ELECTIONS Goal: 100 parent leaders will engage 1,200 of their peers by June 2019 to demonstrate support for Speak UP’s policy agenda in four Board Districts with upcoming elections.

Speak UP parent organizers will conduct a series of leadership training workshops in four LAUSD Board Districts with upcoming elections or special elections (BDs 1,2, 5 and 7). With the potential for a special election in late 2018 or 2019 in BD5, we will allocate an extra parent engagement coordinator to accelerate the leadership development and parent engagement work in that district. Certified parent leaders will use their newly acquired organizing techniques to identify parents who support Speak UP’s policy agenda, secure their support for Speak UP’s advocacy and electoral engagement, and keep them engaged as voters and campaign participants.

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HELP SPEAK UP MEET ITS GOALS Speak UP is a grassroots organization that depends on our members and supporters to help us achieve our mission. We are close to making our fundraising goals for 2018— please help put us over the top!

1

Make a donation on our website: http://speakupparents.org/donate/

2

Mail a check to: Speak UP 11845 W Olympic Boulevard, Suite 1100 W. Los Angeles, CA 90064

3

Become a member and stay up to date with Board Watch, elections and advocacy campaigns. Join on our website: http://speakupparents.org/join/ With your support, the power of parent voices will continue to resonate with policy makers and drive a kids-first agenda in LAUSD. Please make your donation today.

Fundraising $1,200,000

$1,000,000

$ 150,000

$800,000

$600,000 $ 900,000 $400,000

$200,000

$0

Raised to Date

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Needed to Raise

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Katie Braude

SPEAK UP BOARD OF DIRECTORS Richard Landers, Chair Aida Rodriguez, Vice Chair Rene Rodman, Secretary Russell Altenburg, Treasurer Yolie Flores Heidi Landers Sylvia Wilson

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THE SPEAK UP TEAM

www.speakupparents.org