* UPDATED Ron Chandler, LA Unified’s Chief Information Officer and the official responsible for the implementation of MiSiS, the new student-tracking system, has has resigned after four years with the district. The move represents the most decisive change in Ramon Cortines’s first two weeks as superintendent. It comes as the district continues efforts to clean...

Via Education Week | By Peter Cunningham In the interest of seeding progress, not scoring points, I offer the following feedback to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in response to her Oct. 22 speech to the West Coast Labor Management Institute in the wake of John Deasy’s recent resignation as the superintendent of the Los...

Tight race for schools chief A new Field Poll shows a virtual tie between incumbent Tom Torlakson and challenger Marshall Tuck in the race for state superintendent. The Sacramento Bee Long Beach looking to extend its push for college to preschools Believing it’s never too early to think about college, Long Beach public officials and...

Via The New York Times | By Frank Bruni  More than halfway through Joel Klein’s forthcoming book on his time as the chancellor of New York City’s public schools, he zeros in on what he calls “the biggest factor in the education equation.” It’s not classroom size, school choice or the Common Core. It’s “teacher quality,”...

Union power on the ballot The campaign for California superintendent of public instruction is on pace to be the most expensive contest in the state this cycle. Politico LA Unified turns to teenager to teach social media San Pedro High School senior Delaney Wells recently taught a technology class on Instagram for a group of...

LA Unified is unveiling a new program today, one directed at a small group of students with exceptional needs: those returning to schools from juvenile justice programs. Designed to serve students from probation camps, juvenile halls and residential situations, the program aims at helping them mount a successful return to school, with a special emphasis...

Via The Los Angeles Times | By the Editorial Board With John Deasy no longer in charge at the Los Angeles Unified School District, the school board needs a new superintendent who shares his passion for improving the lives of children in poverty, but not his adversarial approach or his refusal to listen to critics....

State implements new kindergarten cutoff age Of the panoply of reforms now being implemented in California schools, the one affecting the state’s youngest students passed almost unnoticed this fall. EdSource Title IX decision, a reminder on equality in athletics With an appeals court finding that a California district violated federal discrimination protections, legal experts suggest...

Via EdSource | By John C. Osborn The race for California state superintendent of public instruction has been fueled by a combined $24 million in total campaign spending for incumbent Tom Torlakson and candidate Marshall Tuck. Outside groups not affiliated with either candidate represent the bulk of that spending – close to $19.4 million on...

With Deasy out, is LA schools’ iPad program ‘dead’? With the departure of John Deasy, the future of the Los Angeles School District’s controversial one-to-one technology program hangs in uncertainty. KPCC LAUSD scrambles to ensure MiSiS doesn’t keep seniors from college Los Angeles Unified’s staff is in a scramble to make sure a computer system doesn’t...