(Published in today’s Los Angeles Times) Ousting Supt. John Deasy, as the union wants, would hurt students. by Jamie Alter Lynton The leadership of the Los Angeles teachers union recently conducted a survey among its members asking if they had confidence in Los Angeles Unified Supt. John Deasy. Although it was highly unusual for...

The LA Times‘ most recent education story tells you several things you already know about the District 6 (East Valley) School Board runoff, including recent contributions to the Coalition for School Reform account and the stalemate over the dual UTLA endorsements of Monica Ratliff (pictured) and Antonio Sanchez that “helps Sanchez by keeping UTLA on the...

Most of the news coverage surrounding last week’s union straw poll on LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy focused on the whopping 91 percent of teachers who expressed “no confidence” in his leadership and treated the result as if it had some sort of real-world impact. What got left out or minimized along the way was the...

Thursday’s LA Times editorial about the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluations around the country (Bill Gates’ warning on test scores) makes some valuable points about the dangers of rushed, half-baked teacher evaluation schemes that count test scores as more than half of a teacher’s evaluation (as is being done in some states and districts)....

This is a guest commentary written by Viviana Sosa, a former LAUSD teacher, chapter chair, and House of Representatives member who joined the staff of Educators for Excellence Los Angeles  a little over a year ago: I grew up and went to school in South Los Angeles.  I became a teacher in the same types of schools...

In September, I was talking about pension reform on my now-defunct weekly podcast, LA Redux with the LA Times’ David Zahniser, who covers City Hall (and is in my opinion one of the best reporters in Los Angeles). Zahniser said that he hardly ever uses the word ‘reform,’ in his stories, although editors sometimes ad it in. “‘Reform’ is just...

Districts are wrong to oppose new state limits on the use of the state’s 4,400 alternative certification teachers who work with English Language Learners, according to former LAUSD teacher Walt Gardner, writing on his Education Week blog: “I don’t dismiss the idealism of new college graduates. I’m sure their desire to “make a difference” is sincere, but...

Last week’s School Board primary outcome wasn’t a win or even a mixed result for Mayor Villaraigosa and his merry band of reformers, according to former state senator Gloria Romero. It was a big loss. Romero has had public disagreements with Villaraigosa in the past, and she first made her negative assessment of the outcome...

Some of the best and worst reporting and commentary since yesterday is rounded up below. As you’ll see, it includes questions about the ineffectiveness of the attacks on Zimmer, a couple of stories that wonder why the Coalition took Zimmer on in the first place, and some attempts to connect the LAUSD race to education...

On Friday, former LAUSD Board Members Yolie Flores and Marlene Canter weighed in with an oped in the LA Daily News:  “When people with no vested, personal interest in the outcome try to help elect reform-minded candidates, they are branded as “outsiders” who are trying to “buy elections.”… Yet, when “insiders” who do have a...