*UPDATE Carl A. Cohn, a longtime educational leader in California, was named today to be the first director of the California Collaborative on Educational Excellence (CCEE), a newly-formed state agency charged with providing advice and assistance to school districts in achieving the goals set forth in the Local Control and Accountability Plans. Cohn has a distinguished...

Five national organizations this week released a first-of-its kind guidebook for school districts on how to navigate common issues that arise with educating transgender students. The report, “Schools In Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools,” offers advice and best practices on a wide range of issues districts often face, such as bathroom...

About 50 students and activists disrupted the LA Unified school board meeting on July 30 in a protest over the district police force’s having dozens of M-16 rifles from the federal government’s controversial 1033 Program. While LA School Report was at the meeting and covered the protest, the general public was unable to see what occurred...

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) has announced that it negotiated new contracts for teachers at four LA Unified charter schools — Palisades Charter High, Pacoima Charter Elementary, Ivy Academia and Granada Hills Charter High. Two of the contracts include raises for teachers. UTLA currently represents more than 1,000 educators at 13 charter schools. They include six...

The headline on the press release yesterday From Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky and 2016 presidential hopeful, screams for attention: “Sen. Rand Paul Highlights LAUSD Reallocating Funds from National School Lunch Program to Feed Lawns, Not Children.” The message got the attention of The Hill, a DC paper that covers Congress, which went with “Paul:...

When LA Unified and its teachers union agreed to new three-year deals on a contract and health benefits this spring, one strike was averted. But another may be on the horizon. UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl took the stage over the weekend at the union’s annual leadership conference and made another strike threat in his State of the Union...

David Binkle, the embattled food services director for LA Unifed, has resigned from the job he held through last December before he was removed under a cloud of controversy. Binkle had become a celebrity in the food world the last few years after appearing on talk shows and receiving praise from First Lady Michele Obama for...

For all the criticism they might endure, California education officials are rarely accused of being unqualified for their jobs. That’s not quite the case in Alabama. The state’s Republican governor, Robert Bentley, is under fire for filling a vacancy on the state’s board of education with someone who lacks any credentials or background in education....

Superintendent Ramon Cortines of LA Unified confirmed in June that the district’s police force has ended its involvement in a federal program that delivered military-grade weapons to school districts. The decision on the so-called 1033 Program came on the heels of President Obama‘s announcement in May that he was severely restricting the parameters of the program. The response...

Among the biggest challenges facing California school districts in the coming years is a growing teacher shortage. Enrollment in teacher preparation programs has plummeted since 2008, and more than 100,000 teachers are expected to retire in the next decade. Despite the gathering storm, the state lacks any cohesive strategy to solving the problem, according to a...