Brown calls for new fees on teacher preparation review Still struggling to find a fiscal footing in the wake of the recession, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing would be granted additional authority to impose fees on educator preparation programs under a proposal from the Brown administration. The agency, which serves as the state’s standards board...

Via the Los Angeles Times | By Howard Blume, Richard Winton and Alan Zarembo The Los Angeles Unified School District said it would not reverse its decision to fire former Miramonte Elementary teacher Martin Springer after charges against him were dropped Wednesday, officials said. L.A. County prosecutors canceled Springer’s pending trial after the teacher’s young...

  Never say LA Unified doesn’t look out for the kids. This press release arrived from the district yesterday, so everyone can relax:       L.A. UNIFIED’S STATEMENT ON GRAPHIC IMAGES OF COWS DISTRIBUTED TO STUDENTS DURING ANIMAL ACTIVIST PROTEST A cow and a calf, part of a mobile classroom provided by the Dairy...

Controller seeks pay data from all California public schools State Controller John Chiang has asked every public school district in the state to provide salary and benefit information for all employees and elected officials so that it can be posted on the Web and shared with the public.  LA Times LA school district to spend...

Teams of students across LA Unified are preparing for the kickoff this weekend of the Aspen Challenge, a citywide competition launched by the Aspen Institute in partnership with the school district. In an effort to hone social entrepreneurial skills, the program challenges students to find solutions to a series of pressing social issues presented to...

LA school board committee to tackle job description for temporary member Los Angeles Unified school board member Steve Zimmer is inviting the public to help write a job description. It’s for the role of District 1 advocate – a position proposed by Zimmer and approved by the school board to speak on the behalf of...

Testimony resumes this morning in Vergara v California, with Troy Christmas of the Oakland Unified School District returning to the stand to face cross examination by lawyers for the defendants — the state and its two big teachers unions. Christmas, the Director of Labor Management and Employee Relations for his district, has largely plowed the...

Deasy provides fodder for both sides in lawsuit In a groundbreaking trial over teacher job protections, Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy was the early star witness — for both sides. The case, Vergara vs. California, challenges a set of laws that affect how teachers are fired, laid off and granted tenure. LA Times Aggressive pr...

LA schools to get 45K more iPads for spring tests Officials at the Los Angeles Unified School District put in order with Apple Thursday to buy 45,000 new devices for student standardized testing in the spring. After weeks of negotiation, the price dropped by more than $200 from earlier rounds to $504 per device –...