Last month’s New York Times Sunday Magazine feature story about students, stress, and standardized testing included an anecdote about Bright Star Charter Academy student Armando Rodriguez.  Rodriguez loves competition and generally thrives under pressure, but didn’t feel so good when he took the SATs: Occasionally, he’d look up from his exam to see everyone else working on their...

For all the time and effort spent trying to unseat District 4 School Board member Steve Zimmer in the primary, the Coalition-funded TV ad campaign relied almost entirely on the single “Talking Benches” ad.  Here’s an alternative that might have had more effect — or backfired: a YouTube video showing  Zimmer touting his independence at the...

As you can see, life at Westeros Valley High is pretty brutal. You don’t really have to know much about Game of Thrones to enjoy. Via ONTD

As you may recall, Tuesday’s LA Times included an editorial calling for LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy to change the guideline he recently issued to principals that called for student achievement to be no more than 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation. Thirty percent was perhaps too high a figure, according to the Times, and had been...

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...

Expressing concern about increasing divisiveness between LAUSD and the teachers union, the LA Times editorial page calls for a more thoughtful, balanced approach to making much-needed improvements, including a proposal for LAUSD to make student achievement less than 30 percent of teacher evaluations: “We don’t know what heft test scores should have in performance reviews —...

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...

Watch live Twitter coverage from @laschoolreport here, in between blog updates.

Check out this just-completed chat with LA Times education reporter Howard Blume, which includes news that the state charter association has donated $300,000 to the Coalition for School Reform.   On Monday, LA School Report broke the news that Rupert Murdoch had just contributed $250,000 to the Coalition. *Correction:  The original version of this post...