Via NY Times | by Frank Bruni There are perils to the current tenure talk: that it fails to address the intense strains on many teachers; that it lays too much fault on their doorsteps, distracting people from other necessary reforms. But the discussion is imperative, because there’s no sense in putting something as crucial as...

Los Angeles Unified works to fix new computer system Although Los Angeles Unified teachers were told Monday they could use a scaled-back version, the district’s new computer system continues to be plagued by problems. LA Daily News LAUSD policy restricts use of citations, arrests Students involved in relatively minor offenses on school campuses will no...

Via NY Times | by David Kirp Today’s education reformers believe that schools are broken and that business can supply the remedy. Some place their faith in the idea of competition. Others embrace disruptive innovation, mainly through online learning. Both camps share the belief that the solution resides in the impersonal, whether it’s the invisible...

Common Core: CA schools shift science teaching away from memorization California is at a critical stage in carrying out a wholesale change of how it teaches science and other core topics. It’s a process that takes time when you’re working with nearly six million students. KPCC Of aching backs and digital textbooks It won’t be...

LAUSD in crisis over its new MiSiS computer system Los Angeles Unified told teachers to stop using the new district-wide computer system Thursday, after days of dealing with glitches and other problems that have lost records and kept students from starting in the proper classes. Daily News To quell high school angst, some schools build...

Via Los Angeles Times | By Howard Blume At the low-slung bungalow west of downtown, a youngster screams from a vaccination and a nurse records the height and weight of an older boy. Academic counselors stand by, because it is here that many children who recently crossed the southern border enroll in the Los Angeles...

Outspent by rival, McKenna drew on connections in school board victory In this week’s election for a seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education, one side had deep pockets and extensive political connections; the other side had people such as Orley Frost Jr. LA Times Judge: State must help all English learners A judge...

Fun with numbers: By the LA City Clerk’s unofficial results from last night, George McKenna won with 14,940 votes to 13,153 for Alex Johnson. That translates to $6.79 the McKenna campaign spent for each vote, $101,479 overall, compared with $10.22 that the Johnson campaign paid for each vote, $134,470 overall. Among the independent groups who spent...

School leaders oppose Brown’s rainy day measure A coalition of some of the state’s most influential education groups is rallying opposition to a Constitutional amendment placed on the November ballot by the Legislature that would require the state to reconstruct a rainy day fund for use in lean budget years. S&I Cabinet Report California awarded...

George McKenna, a lifelong educator as a teacher, principal, superintendent and administrator, won the runoff election tonight, defeating Alex Johnson to claim the District 1 seat on the LA Unified school board. As the leading vote-getter in the June primary, McKenna, 74, campaigned on his decades of service and with all 324 precincts and mail-in...