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!