Alex Caputo-Pearl is the head of the teacher’s union UTLA.
Academic and parent Maryam Qudrat started an online petition at Change.org that was sent to LAUSD President Austin Beutner, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and nine others. Qudrat authored the national e-learning plan for Afghanistan. At a June 10 LAUSD board meeting, she said: “If they can do it in Afghanistan, I know we can do it, too.”
Qudrat has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Phoenix, a master’s degree in philosophy from Cal State Long Beach and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Southern California. She speaks Dari, Farsi and English and is a full-time lecturer at CSULB.
In her petition, she asks parents, “Wondering why your student seems to have only a few hours (or less) of online class instruction per week? Or why they have no face-to-face instruction at all? Based on current directives from LAUSD and the UTLA, the teacher’s union, your child’s teachers are not required to teach classes online. During this time of emergency crisis management, whether or not a teacher provides face-to-face, virtual instruction is uncertain.”
The petition asks that LAUSD fall distance learning include:
1. Required daily synchronous online instruction: with full-time live instruction in all core academic subjects.
2. Required consistent class schedule all semester.
3. Accountability: daily attendance, grades assigned at regular grading periods, standardized testing to measure the effectiveness of distance learning.
4. Assignments and tests graded online so students and parents can view teacher corrections and comments in addition to the assigned grade.
5. “Office hours” not counting towards required live instructional minutes.
6. Teachers to be trained on education apps that integrate the above four points in the features.
The petition states, “While it is understandable why the LA Unified School District ended in-person classes, there is no feasible explanation as to why teacher instruction was completely suspended.” The note urges parents to sign the petition by visiting: change.org