By Lillian Mongeau What if you were told that your child didn’t qualify for a spot in second grade because he didn’t have freckles? Ridiculous, right? But there’s a law on the books in California that is exactly this arbitrary. Aspen Erickson, 5, is a kindergartener at Lakewood Elementary School in Sunnyvale, California, one of...

State Board penalizes ETS $3.1 million for late test scores The State Board of Education voted to penalize the Educational Testing Service $3.1 million for delivering the scores and reports on the new Smarter Balanced tests late. EdSource, by John Fensterwald Study: Most states link student learning to teacher reviews In many states, those performance...

By Eduardo Porter Here’s the good news: American schools may not be as bad as we have been led to believe. Ah, but here’s the bad news: The rest of American society is failing its disadvantaged citizens even more than we realize. The question is, Should educators be responsible for fixing this? The perennial debate about...

LAUSD to ask film crews about nudity, drug use, weapons Film crews requesting permits to film at schools will be required to complete a checklist detailing 13 different types of content. NBC, by Jenna Susko California’s attorney general investigates the online charter school industry Students at virtual charter schools lag significantly behind their peers in...

In its latest chess move opposing a massive charter school expansion plan spearheaded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the LA teachers union, UTLA, is planning citywide picketing at schools across LA Unified next Tuesday. The picketing would be the latest in a series of actions by the union since the plan was announced...

By John Fensterwald In the education bills that he vetoed last month, Gov. Jerry Brown made his “don’t” priorities clear to legislators: Don’t tamper with the Local Control Funding Formula; don’t mess with charter schools; don’t create new state mandates; don’t push new spending; and don’t create new state commissions and agencies to examine the limited state data that he...

Commentary: California’s financing formula reignites big school struggle The struggle over how – and if – California schools will be held accountable for LCAPS results will be rejoined this week in the state Board of Education. Sacramento Bee, by Dan Walters Teachers need more time, money and prestige, report says A new report calls for...

By Lee Hale My editor, Steve Drummond, isn’t that old of a guy. He’s from Michigan — Wayne Memorial High School, class of ’79. But when he starts talking about backpacks, he dips into a “back in my day” tone that makes you think of a creaky rocking chair and suspenders: “You know, Lee, when...

Deterioration of arts programs has been particularly jarring in LAUSD Budget cuts and a narrow focus on subjects that are measured on standardized tests have contributed to a vast reduction of public school arts programs across the U.S. Los Angeles Times, by Zahira Torres and Ryan Menezes Comprehensive Common Core survey sent to teachers, principals...