California unveils online tool "School Dashboard," Congressman Issa presents alternate GOP healthcare plan, in Downtown LA production, the audience becomes actors.
Is the new tool for evaluating schools too kind in its grading?
Is the new tool for evaluating schools too kind in its grading?
A new rating system when online earlier this week, it's called the California School Dashboard. Schools superintendent Tom Torlakson described it as "high-tech report card." But after an analysis by the L.A. Times, the paper says the Dashboard "paints a rosier picture...than past measurements" of some schools that have underperformed in the past.
KPCC's education editor Maura Walz has been spending a lot of time with the Dashboard tool, and she came back to talk to A Martinez about it.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
State of Affairs: Lawmakers react to Trump budget proposal, and the Doggfather gets political
Today on State of Affairs:
Reactions continue to pour in from California lawmakers after a budget plan put forward by President Trump earlier this week proposes some deep cuts.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the Golden State are reacting to an estimate out of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that says 24 fewer Americans would be covered under the GOP health plan currently on the table.
And Snoop Dogg, AKA the Doggfather makes a clear political statement in his recent music video.
Viewer discretion is advised.
Guests:
- Carla Marinucci, senior writer for Politico's California Playbook
- Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, professor of public policy at USC
To hear this conversation, click the blue player above.
7 almost-free ways to spend your weekend in SoCal
'Remote LA' turns audience into performance art
Something unusual is about to happen in downtown L.A. About 50 people with headphones on are standing around in a garden. They’ve come to participate in something called Remote L.A. It’s billed as a "live pedestrian theatre performance," but nobody seems clear on what that means.
“My friend brought me on this adventure and I’m like it’s a journey! I don’t know what were doing; but I’m excited,” said Jennie Kim, 37. Kim brought her husband and kids with her on the adventure.
Suddenly, an artificial sounding voice starts talking to them through their headphones. The voice is called Heather, and for the next 90 minutes she guides them through the city, often asking them to look at L.A. and each other in a new way. At times, it feels like a social experiment and at others it’s fun and playful.
“I think the thing [that] was special on doing this production in Los Angeles is that the city is very much car based that people are not used to walk a lot so it shows you what you can see in the city if you experience it as pedestrian and not sitting in your car,” says Jörg Karrenbauer, the director and co-creator of the performance.
Karrenbauer is part of the German-based Rimini Protokoll art collective that has put on Remote performances in cities across the world.
He was invited by Diane Rodriguez, the associate artistic director of center Theatre Group to create Remote LA. Center Theatre Group is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and to make it memorable they decided to bring theatre out of the playhouse and into the streets.
“So the city is never boring…it's very theatrical, it’s very entertaining already by itself. This is what it makes it very easy to look at it as creating theatrical moments in the city just by framing moments, by stopping the people, by telling them ‘okay stop, and look,” says Karrenbauer.
In this performance, the participants are actors and audience simultaneously. They observe the city, but the everyday passersby also look curiously at them. The technology Karrenbauer uses seems to react to what the participants are doing and what’s happening around them; creating moments of theatre magic.
“This is a chance to give Los Angeles a deeper look; not just blink and quickly drive by in your car; it’s a moment to observe in a way that you never let yourself. That's why you will remember it; because you're forced to do something in a very cool and fun way…” says Diane Rodriguez.
And how did the actors-slash-audience feel about it when it was all over?
“It was a rocking good time, I had a blast, I saw a lot of spaces I’ve never seen before and I’ve been around L.A. for a couple years so that was great!” said Dave Mack.
“I felt like I was part of a big sociology experiment at times, and other times I felt like was inside a sci-fi movie,” said Jennie Kim. “You know us Angelinos, we don’t really walking [laughs] so this was really nice, I liked the walking.”
Remote L.A. runs through April 2nd and tickets are available at centertheatregroup.org
On Match Day, emotions run high for medical students
Today is "Match Day," the day when the doctors of tomorrow learn where they'll be doing their medical residency.
Though students have their own hopeful preferences, they won't know where they're going until they open that envelope with their name on it.
It's a process that begins when senior medical students apply to residency programs all across the country based on their chosen specialty. Then, faculty at these locations who have reviewed their applications will interview the students they believe will be a good fit for their program.
Both students and medical facilities will rank each other. After that, The National Resident Matching Program will record both party's rankings. Using their local algorithm, the Resident Matching Program provides the student with the highest choice possible to determine where their training will continue.
Dr. Donna Elliot, senior associate dean for student and educational affairs at Keck School of Medicine of USC, is the one that hands out the residency assignments to students. Elliot still remembers when she was on the receiving end of Match Day.
"I was delighted," she told Take Two's A Martinez. "I trained in pediatrics and I was fortunate enough to get my top choice."
Elliot expects to see that elation today.
"Mostly tears of joy has been my experience," she said, "Lots of screaming and shouting of, 'I matched at so-and-so! I can't believe it!'"
She also anticipates there will be some upset with their matches.
"There's always some students who are a little disappointed, at least on first pass, at where they ended up. It often has to do with geography. They wanted to be with family or with a significant other and that the location of their training program will not allow them to do that," she said.
One student who's definitely excited about her destination for medical residency is Maria de Fatima Reyes. She's a fourth-year med student at Keck who will graduate in May. After that, she's headed to the University of California at San Francisco to study gynecology. While most of her friends from USC are staying in Los Angeles, UCSF was Reyes's top choice.
"It's a special program, it's in California and I'm just humbled that they want me," she said.
That's not to say that her work in school is done yet.
"I just have a couple of assignments. I need to finish a program for a gala for the Latino Medical Student Association. Then, I think, maybe happy hour with my friends."
To hear this conversation, click the blue player above.