The Los Angeles Unified School District today blamed state laws for why it took the district so long to dismiss an El Sereno Elementary School teacher who is facing a lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing students as long ago as 2007. David Holmquist, the district’s chief lawyer, said in a press release today Armando Gonzalez was removed from...

Future of high school exit exam unclear as California revamps testing The current overhaul of California’s student testing program is skipping, for now, the California High School Exit Exam, the one test that’s truly high stakes. If students don’t pass, they don’t receive a high school diploma. Gov. Jerry Brown has said he will sign...

LAUSD approves $113M budget to train teachers for Common Core After debating nearly two hours and voting down a proposed compromise, the Los Angeles Unified board on Tuesday approved a plan for spending $113 million to implement a new curriculum — the same budget that triggered the resignation of the district’s instructional chief when it...

Follow us now on twitter @laschoolreport  to catch the latest developments at today’s LA Unified School Board meeting, where the controversial budget proposal is top on the agenda (here). For a live video feed, go to the LAUSD School Board website, here. Later today, the board will hold a ‘Committee of the Whole’ meeting (agenda here)...

Mayor Garcetti backs John Deasy, seeks to end feud between LAUSD leaders Amid mounting tension between Los Angeles Unified’s top administrators and the school board, Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed support Monday for Superintendent John Deasy and said he plans to meet with both sides in order to ensure the district’s academic progress doesn’t falter. Garcetti...

A story in yesterday’s New York Times magazine, “No Child Left Untableted,” explored the use and impact of digital devices in the classroom. It quotes Joel Klein, the former New York City school superintendent and now chief executive of Amplify, a New York-based division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation that makes tablets for classroom use,...

In the note Jaime Aquino circulated last week, he blames his decision to resign on a “political climate” that blocks his ability to lead in a way he views as effective. He names no names, but he was clearly not happy with a decision to postpone implementation of Common Core, one of his prime directives. Here’s...

L.A. Unified seeks to end confusion and fights over parent trigger law It was billed as a bold attempt to give parents the power to transform their failing schools. But more than two years after California legislators passed the parent-trigger law, it has sparked so much controversy that even the measure’s author supports revisions. LA...

Los Angeles Unified iPad comes to San Fernando Valley school Having been part of a two-month trial run last year, the students at the arts-based high school could justifiably have been blasé about Thursday’s rollout of the Los Angeles Unified iPad project at their San Fernando campus. Instead, the seniors in teacher Faraaz Qureshi’s homeroom excitedly...

State Assembly defies feds, sends school testing overhaul to governor The California Assembly on Wednesday easily approved an overhaul of the state’s student testing system in which schools and parents would not receive test scores for at least a year. The vote of 51 to 22 was largely along party lines, with Democrats overwhelmingly in...