Welcome Back, Emerson Teachers!

In a couple of weeks, many of us will be struggling to fall asleep filled with equal parts anxiety and excitement for our first day of school.  Well, that was me last night, anxious about our professional development sessions and excited about the prospects for exciting changes this coming school year.  And just as teachers and school sites are getting ready for students to arrive on the 13th, many people put in numerous hours prior to our arrival this morning.  They all helped make Emerson's first day for teachers pretty great.  So, thanks to our administration, Michelle Bennett, the PD committee and our facilitators for planning our PD sessions. Thanks to our office and facilities personnel for all your work this summer while we were away.  Thanks to our parents for another delicious lunch and thanks to all of the teachers for being fully present.  There are great things going on at our public school!

Get Federal Funds to California's Classrooms Now!

A Call to Action from the California State PTA urges you to contact your legislator and the governor about SB 847 which will release funds to help save school jobs.  There is also an action in Glendale on Monday, August 30 at 11:00 am. I know this is short notice, but State Superintendent Jack O'Connell has a scheduled press event and we hope to have parent/educator voices present to encourage the release of $1.2 billion in education funding. 

Summer News...

Over the summer our school, the city, and the federal government have been busy.  Emerson hosted three days of Camp Emerson welcoming incoming students and their families to get the year started.  The Los Angeles Times intensified conversations about teacher evaluations with their "value-added" series and the Department of Education moved forward with their Race to the Top.

We will likely revisit these topics for discussion, but let's take a look at this article from The Star Tribune in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  "Americans less happy with Obama's education agenda, but still love their local schools."

There seems to be a disconnect between the experiences teachers, students and families have at their local schools, and what the press and federal government want us to think about our public schools. Are all of our schools struggling or is it just those other schools?

Despite what the press and test scores say about the state of education what has been your experience?

Welcome to Emerson Advocates

Emerson Advocates hopes to organize parents, future parents, teachers, administrators and community members committed to quality education at Ralph Waldo Emerson Middle School in Los Angeles, California. Despite ongoing attacks on our public schools we believe we can organize school staff, families and prospective families to meet the diverse needs of our school community.

Our goal is to utilize this blog to engage in thoughtful conversations about public education/education policy and consider opportunities for action.  We hope these interactions will allow stakeholders to be accurately informed, express concerns, and organize to strengthen the Emerson learning community and public education at the district, state and federal levels.

Please contact Michele Levin mlevin@lausd.net or Noriko Nakada nnakada@lausd.net if you want more information or if you are interested in guest blogging for Emerson Advocates!