[continued from previous message]   
      
   using incentives or intimidation to win or sway parent support.   
      
   Morales said he is pleased with the new charter operator in   
   Adelanto, but said he wouldn’t go through the trigger process if   
   he had the option of doing it all over again. He’s cut ties with   
   parents he once considered good friends because of it.   
      
   “They brainwashed a lot of us into believing that we needed them   
   and the parent trigger to successfully transform the school,” he   
   said.   
      
   Parent Revolution representatives say they want to foster more   
   collaboration and minimize conflict. They point to four other   
   Southern California parent unions that have used the parent-   
   trigger process to achieve different types of reforms. At   
   Weigand Elementary School in Watts, a parent-trigger campaign   
   got the district to replace the principal despite teacher   
   objections. Other efforts included a unique district-charter   
   hybrid partnership at 24th Street Elementary in South Los   
   Angeles, and convincing the district to let parents and teachers   
   do a comprehensive needs assessment at Lennox Middle School just   
   outside Inglewood: The school district’s superintendent formed   
   an external team that worked with parents to identify the   
   school’s strengths and weaknesses, and then developed a   
   turnaround plan based on the findings.   
      
   “Every school can be a quality school, and every school should   
   be,” said Diaz, the Adelanto mom who is now helping parents   
   launch campaigns in other areas. “If we can reach more parents   
   and educate more parents, then perhaps we can create a   
   monumental shift in education.”   
      
   Parent Revolution is now working with about 15 other California   
   parent unions. “It is now understood the law works,” said   
   Everett, the Parent Revolution spokesman. “We are no longer in   
   phase one.” In addition to California, Parent Revolution will be   
   focusing resources on budding trigger efforts in Louisiana, he   
   said.   
      
   Angel Barrett, lead instructional director for LAUSD elementary   
   schools, said she’s encouraged by the early results of parent-   
   trigger campaigns in the Los Angeles area. Students at 24th   
   Street Elementary School, for instance, now benefit from a   
   reinstated pre-kindergarten program, and a more fluid transition   
   to middle school under the new charter school partnership. But   
   she emphasized that it will take sustained work by educators and   
   parents to see the changes through.   
      
   “The key is that the parent trigger is only the beginning, and   
   we have to be very cognizant of ensuring that we continue to   
   support the school,” Barrett said. “Just coming in and making a   
   change, whether you change a principal or change the   
   faculty—that’s an immediate action, but what happens on day two,   
   day three, what happens six months later or a year later?”   
      
   “Parent trigger may be an impetus for change,” she said, “but   
   what is the longer-term solution?”   
      
   http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/what-   
   happens-after-fed-up-parents-take-over-a-   
   school/283481/?google_editors_picks=true   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)