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Chicago Critics Call For an Elected School Board
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pretty much everything that Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa could ever have wanted when it comes to control over his school district. By state law, the former Obama chief of staff appoints the school board and the superintendent. He and his City Hall deputies effectively set policy and budget priorities. But...
By Alexander Russo | October 12, 2012
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Morning Read: Deasy Extends Partnerships
Deasy Gets Authority Over Approving Outside Control of Schools The LAUSD school board approved giving Deasy the new authority when it approved extensions of agreements with the mayor’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and L.A.’s Promise. The teachers union and two school board members called for a delay, seeking a more extensive review of the schools’...
By Hillel Aron | October 10, 2012
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How Good Is Chicago Contract?
Last Friday, UTLA put on an event to demonstrate support for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and held a conference call with CTU delegates who were then still on strike (see Support spreads for CTU Socialist Worker). Excitement among union leaders and rank-and-file teachers was high. Accountability-minded reformers were grumbling that the district had given away too...
By Alexander Russo | September 20, 2012
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Big Moves From Zimmer
Tomorrow at the LAUSD board meeting (see agenda here), board member Steve Zimmer will make two big moves. The first is his long-awaited proposal to reject the use of Academic Growth Over Time, or AGT, as a measurement of pupil progress when evaluating teachers. AGT measures student improvement on the California Standardized Tests (CSTs), and...
By Hillel Aron | September 10, 2012
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Trigger Gains Traction
Still no word if and when a trigger petition gets filed in LAUSD, but in the meantime a screening of trigger movie “Won’t Back Down” was approved by the Democratic National Committee for a preconference event in Charlotte earlier this week, and took place complete with an appearance from Mayor Villaraigosa. Whatever Los Angelenos think of...
By Alexander Russo | September 5, 2012
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Parent Trigger Swirls Around LAUSD
The parents of Desert Trails Elementary, along with Parent Revolution, have filed a “Motion to Compel” the Adelanto School Board to comply with the judge’s order in the Desert Trails case. According to California law, parents of a failing school can, if they gather signatures of over half the parents, change their school’s management structure.You can...
By Hillel Aron | August 29, 2012
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Morning Read: Romero Vs. Villaraigosa
Gloria Romero to Antonio Villaraigosa: We’re not removing you from Prop 32 ad SFGate: LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was ticked that the pro-Prop 32 folks were using his name and comments “out of context” in an ad. He asked them to remove his name/comments from the ad promoting the measure on the November ballot that would ban...
By Hillel Aron | August 28, 2012
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Morning Read: The Powers That Be
• Adelanto parents lose charter school bid: On Friday, the Adelanto School Board rejected the petition by parents of Desert Trails Elementary (site of the recent parent trigger ruling) to convert their school into a charter, saying there wasn’t enough time to implement before the school year. The board voted, instead, to install a “community advisory council”...
By Hillel Aron | August 20, 2012