They don’t usually get much attention but here and there in LA and elsewhere, parents and teachers frustrated with the existing options are creating their own new, different kind of charter schools that try to balance learning with accountability and mix kids from a wide variety of backgrounds. (In Los Angeles, Citizens of the World...

Here’s the agenda for today’s Board meeting. You can also follow the action at @laschoolreport for live updates along the way.LAUSD Board Meeting Agenda 11-13-12

Don’t bother pitching KPCC’s Tami Abdollah your education stories much longer — the KPCCer is soon leaving the station and the beat for a gig with AP covering crime.  (See KPCC Education Reporter Shifting to AP Law Enforcement Beat Fishbowl LA.) She came onto the education beat just about a year ago, joining Adolfo Guzman-Lopez and has produced...

In a race that is still considered too close to call, Assemblywoman Betsy Butler is trailing her upstart opponent, Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, by just over 200 votes in Assembly District 50, which covers one of the wealthiest areas of the city from Beverly Hills to the ocean. In the end, the narrow margin...

LAUSD Officials Relieved as Voters OK Tax Hike to Aid Schools Bolstered by strong support in Los Angeles County, voters approved a tax-hike measure that will generate $6 billion in revenue and avert catastrophic cuts to California’s public schools and universities. Daily News Big Win for Schools as Prop 30 Defies Polls Proposition 30 will...

There’s a Friday deadline for teachers to nominate themselves to become part of the union’s House of Representatives, according to NewTLA, the progressive caucus within UTLA encouraging members to sign up for the job.  Though previous elections have often been uncontested, there are a number of standing committees, and in the past the HoR has even...

Two of the 23 schools recently stripped of their API rankings by the state for testing irregularities were elementary schools located in LAUSD, and three more were located within LA County.  You can read the irregularity reports for the two LAUSD schools (Capistrano Avenue and Short Avenue) posted by the LA Times here, or read the...

Starting Monday, November 5, LAUSD Board candidates for the District 2, 4, and 6 seats can take the next necessary steps towards running for office by filing a “Declaration of Intention to Become a Candidate” with the City Clerk’s office. Official announcement here. Official candidate and election information here. But they shouldn’t wait too long.  Prospective candidates have less than a...

There’s not really that much new to say about UTLA’s decision to scuttle LAUSD’s application for a federal Race to the Top grant (ostensibly over cost concerns) but news outlets are having a grand time dissecting it and LAUSD superintendent John Deasy seems more than willing to express his disappointment over that decision. This Daily News story (LAUSD,...

The California Teachers Association is the 6th most powerful state teachers union in the nation, according to a new report from a pair of East Coast nonprofits. California teachers are #1 in terms of scope of bargaining and perceived influence, according to the state profile (PDF here), and #18 and #20 in its level of political...