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School Board Approves New Application for Race to the Top
The LAUSD Board of Education today unanimously and without discussion approved the district’s application for a $30 million Race to the Top application. The board approved an application last year only for the submission to be rejected by the federal Department of Education, in part, because the teachers union refused to sign off on it....
By Hillel Aron | September 10, 2013
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Deasy, Board Plunging Back into Turbulent Budget Waters
Meeting tomorrow for the second time in the new school year, the LA Unified school board will plunge back into a thorny debate over how to spend millions of new dollars flowing into the district from the state. It might not be pretty. Superintendent John Deasy is expected to respond to the board’s June directive to...
By Hillel Aron | September 9, 2013
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Teachers Union Files Two More Unfair Labor Practice Charges*
The teachers union has filed two unfair labor practice charges with the Public Employment Relations Board (or PERB) against the Los Angeles Unified School District over 12 teachers who have been removed from two different schools – one at City of Angels and 11 at Crenshaw High. UTLA president Warren Fletcher said at a...
By Hillel Aron | September 5, 2013
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Superintendent Deasy Not Happy With Latest Testing Bill
LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy said today that he is uncomfortable with inconsistencies in the current version of Assembly Bill 484, which effectively kills the the state standardized tests, the so-called CSTs, and ushers in the new era of Common Core tests, to be taken on computers. “We had a unique opportunity in front of us...
By Hillel Aron | September 5, 2013
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Online Voting a Step Closer for UTLA Membership
An initiative that would move voting by the LA teachers union from paper ballots to online has gathered enough signatures to put the change to a full membership vote, according to the architects of the proposal, Marisa Crabtree and Megan Markevich, both teachers and Teach Plus fellows. “Our goal is to make sure that our union is...
By Hillel Aron | September 5, 2013
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California Adopts New ‘Next Gen’ Science Standards
The State Board of Education yesterday approved a new set of science standards, dubbed the Next Generation Science Standards, which emphasize “a deeper focus on understanding the cross-cutting concepts” of scientific disciplines, according to a press release by the California Department of education. The standards were developed in a collaboration with a number of states over the last 18...
By Hillel Aron | September 5, 2013
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Testing Bill Taking Shape, Would Suspend API For Two Years
A bill moving through the California State Assembly would suspend nearly all of the old standardized tests to free up money and student energy to “field test” the new computer-based Common Core assessments. But testing data from those field tests won’t be used for accountability purposes – they’ll simply be used as practice for students...
By Hillel Aron | September 4, 2013
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Davis Guggenheim Turns His Camera Back onto Teachers
Davis Guggenheim, the director of An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman, has a new film coming out — Teach, a two-hour documentary premiering Sept. 6 on CBS (which means Time Warner cable customers may not be able to watch it). The film follows four public school teachers throughout the school year, including Joel Laguna, a 10th grade AP World...
By Hillel Aron | August 30, 2013
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Service Workers Close to Winning Vote in Charter Process
A bill that would allow cafeteria workers, custodians and teacher aides to vote when a public school wants to become a charter is one vote (State Assembly) and one signature (Gov. Brown) away from becoming law. Both are expected, and it could happen within days. Currently, only teachers get to vote for conversion. But the change...
By Hillel Aron | August 28, 2013
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Deasy to Vladovic (in effect): I See Your 7 and Raise You 7
Just days after Richard Vladovic proposed seven new committees at his first school Board meeting as president, Superintendent John Deasy suggested, in a memo to Vladovic the creation of even more committees. Another seven, in fact, covering: Arts, Human Resources and Personnel, School Safety and Discipline, Government Relations and Legislative Affairs, Charter and Prop 39 Oversight, Magnet and Autonomous School Expansion...
By Hillel Aron | August 27, 2013