L.A.’s Revamped Teacher Evaluation System Getting Mixed Grades Teachers are finding value in the new evaluation system as it rolls out, but administrators doing the reviews complain about how time-consuming they are. LA Times LAUSD Moves to Speed English Learners Into Mainstream Triggered by a federal civil rights investigation, Los Angeles Unified has launched a...

Kate Anderson is getting the nod from Councilman Bill Rosendahl, a coveted endorsement for the contested 4th district school board seat which stretches from the Pacific Palisades to Hollywood. “Kate Anderson’s dedication is clear,” Rosendahl states in an email announcement from the Anderson campaign. “As a parent of two young daughters, Kate wants to change LAUSD so that parents...

LA Charter First In KIPP Network To Embrace Blended Learning At KIPP Empower, that model calls for kindergartners to spend roughly 11 percent of their extended, 8 1/2 -hour school day working on reading or math exercises on a laptop computer. But classes at the school feel, by and large, similar to other early-elementary classrooms...

Fiscal cliff not imminent for school districts The one education cut that would take effect Jan. 1 affects Impact Aid, which involves payments in lieu of property taxes to districts where federal facilities are located. EdSource Teacher accused of fondling student pleads not guilty A former Miramonte Elementary School teacher pleaded not guilty Monday to...

New L.A. teachers too often placed with neediest students, study finds  More so than in the other districts, Los Angeles schools also disproportionately placed newer teachers with less-proficient students  –-  who are an average six months behind peers assigned to more experienced instructors. Los Angeles Times Schools eat up challenge of new federal nutrition standards...

In the latest issue of its “Tuesday Talking Points” newsletter, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) urges its members to gear up for the upcoming school board race on March 5: “Three seats will be up for grabs, giving us a golden opportunity to shift the balance of power on the School Board.” See the full...

Inspired by innovations in sports statistics, the New York Times‘ statistics guru Nate Silver, and all the Gates Foundation talk about the value of school climate surveys, a group of Yale seniors led by North Hollywood High School alumn Aaron Feuer (son of Mike) has developed a relatively cheap, cloud-based software platform called Panorama that can help schools conduct...

You might be surprised to learn that Los Angeles isn’t one of the top five districts when it comes to the percentage of kids who attend charter schools. The top five according to a new report from the National Association of Public Charter Schools are New Orleans, Detroit, Washington D.C., Kansas City (Missouri), Flint, Gary, and St. Louis. But...

Nobody seems to know just how deeply involved in fundraising for Board candidates or other measures to preserve his education legacy Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is going to be during the upcoming months. So it’s interesting to see his byline on a recent oped touting the importance of education in general and in particular the controversial “parent trigger”...

NBC News: Budget cuts can’t stop music at LA school