A new Los Angeles Times / USC poll shows support for Governor Jerry Brown’s Prop 30 ballot initiative – which would temporarily raise income tax on high earners – has slipped to 54%, down 10 points from March. Despite the erosion, Democratic voters still overwhelmingly favor it, 69-20%.  Meanwhile, Molly Munger’s competing tax measure, Prop...

L.A. Unified and Charter Groups Win Teacher Evaluation Grants L.A. Unified, California’s largest school system, will receive $16 million, one of the largest grants. But the top prize in dollars, more than $23 million, went to the District of Columbia Public Schools, a system less than one-eighth the size of L.A. Unified. LA Times What...

Yesterday, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a measure (SB 1458) which curtails the role of test scores in calculating a school’s Academic Performance Index (or API). Right now, API scores are based solely on student test scores, and can have enormous consequences for a school. A low API score can eventually lead to its...

California Limits Role of Student Tests in API Scores California’s key measure of public school quality will be redefined to lessen the impact of standardized test scores under a bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown. The law will broaden how the Academic Performance Index is calculated by limiting test scores to 60% for high...

District 2 covers most of East Los Angeles and is currently represented by Monica Garcia, president of the school board and perhaps the staunchest foe of United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA). There are already a number of declared candidates in District 2, so the question isn’t so much who will run as who else...

Time to Get Schooled: My Conversation With LAUSD’S John Deasy LA Magazine editor Mary Melton sat down with Superintendent Deasy. LA Mag  Triumph Charter High Must Recruit Students to Sun Valley Campus, or Close Triumph Charter High may be forced to close because of low enrollment after relocating this year from Sylmar to Sun Valley, campus...

The recent LA Magazine profile of Superintendent John Deasy included a surprising statistic: “When Deasy arrived, about 98 percent of eligible teachers were granted tenure. Now the approval rate is less than 50 percent.” That sounded unbelievable to me– it either had to be a mistake, or the result of some little-publicized but groundbreaking policy....

Leg Analyst: Prop. 38 Won’t Stop $6 Billion in Trigger Cuts to Schools CTA Blog: During a September 24 hearing, a member of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office’s team told members of the Assembly Budget Committee that Proposition 38 would not prevent $6 billion in automatic or trigger cuts to public education in 2011-2012. TV ads for...

District 6 is an open seat, as current board member Nury Martinez is leaving the school board to run for City Council. Both UTLA and the education reform community are likely to pick candidates and dump money into independent expenditure campaigns supporting them. But who will they pick? One possible candidate for ed reformers in...

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown signed no less than 14 education bills, according to his website. They included a law that re-works how principals are evaluated, and one that makes it harder to expel a student. He also vetoed two bills.  Below the break is the full list.