Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/755919
Teams from various CTA locals attend a recent workshop on the new LCFF Evaluation Rubrics. At left, members of the Montebello Teachers Association. Below, members of the Inglewood Teachers Association. I N N O V E M B E R , the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE) launched a statewide series of workshops on the state's new local control funding, accountability and continuous improvement system. The all-day sessions, each of which drew hundreds of participants, came on the heels of new accountability rubrics recently adopted by the State Board of Education. e Legislature created the CCEE to provide advice and assis- tance to county offices of education, school districts and charter schools in achieving their LCAP goals. November's workshops were part of a professional development component designed to better familiarize stakeholders with the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) system and with the new rubrics. CCEE will also be working directly and closely with targeted local education agencies and developing support models for LCAP implementation. Iishwara "Iish" Ryaru is a former Bay Area high school history teacher and school administrator now serving as a training and outreach director for CCEE. Ryaru gives an overview of the new rubrics at the workshops and finds participants coming with differing backgrounds and knowledge levels. "We have people coming who've been following this closely since the beginning, and others for whom this is all brand-new," he says. "Some are interested parents; some are part of district or local teams; others are individual teachers and administra- tors. It's our hope to meet those varying levels and get people more comfortable with the LCAP and accountability rubrics, which are quite a change from the old way of doing things." Radical Shift Ryaru is right about that. In addition to the radical shift away from categorical funding to a system that directs even more resources to districts and schools with populations of students with higher needs, the Local Control Funding For- mula (LCFF), along with the replacement of No Child Left Behind by the Every Student Succeeds Act, has brought major changes to the ways school and student population growth and achievement are gauged. Whereas performance was formerly represented by a single indicator (the Academic Performance Index score), it will now be measured using multiple indicators. These indicators are divided into state indicators (such as suspension rates, gradu- ation rates and English/math assessments) and local indicators (such as school climate, parent engagement and appropriately assigned teachers). Performance on state indicators will be measured by the Geing Comfortable Training, workshops help familiarize educators with state's new accountability system Story and photos by Frank Wells 42 cta.org advocacy local control