*UPDATED Most of his teachers never checked their school emails. Many of them were “seasoned teachers” who never before touched an iPad. The school’s computer lab was rarely used. Yet, in the past year, Griffin Avenue Elementary School principal Leonel Angulo managed to inspire teachers and students to use computers in their classrooms, and the school became an...

More than 40 agencies, representing a diverse coalition of bipartisan support, are urging California Gov. Jerry Brown to sign a bill requiring preschool for all children in low-income families. The governor has until Oct. 11 to sign or veto the bill. The bill is sponsored by Early Edge California, an educational advocacy group that is working...

LA Unified School Board President Steve Zimmer kept up his attack against the Broad Foundation charter schools expansion plan, appearing on KNBC’s “News Conference” yesterday and calling the plan a “perversion of what the charter movement was supposed to be.” “The reason why I’m concerned is because this is really a business plan that doesn’t address all students,”...

When 50,000 iPads, laptops and Chromebooks went out to LA Unified students last year, about 1,500 were unaccounted for. So far this year about 1,000 were recovered and district computer techs now say they expect to recover the remaining 500 devices by sometime next week. “We’ve been like Sherlock Holmes,” said Bill Wherritt, a Facilities Division...

If you’re an employee at LAUSD or have a child going to a school in the district, expect a call this weekend to ask about what your preference is for a new school calendar. Last evening, Superintendent Ramon Cortines sent out a recorded robo-call that notified teachers and parents that the district will be making three attempts...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said yesterday he plans to initiate an immediate nationwide search to replace the district’s out-going chief of external affairs, Edgar Zazueta. “We are beginning the search immediately, we have put the word out,” Cortines told LA School Report at the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force meeting at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex....

LA Unified listed the names of the first 117 schools to get Transitional Kindergarten (or TK) classes in order to replace the closed School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP) classrooms. The rest of the 173 schools with the SRLDP pre-school programs will make the transition in the 2016-2017 school year. In the plan, none of...

This 12-minute video was posted on the LAUSD website today and will be shown to all 6th to 12th graders to warn them of the dangers of “sexting.” It is part of a campaign that will include lesson plans, posters, bilingual tip sheets and other resources for 900 elementary, middle and high schools. The video...

In a memo to all district employees yesterday, LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines re-emphasized support for transgender youth and employees. With new attention drawn to transgender issues spurred by the public transitioning of Bruce to Caitlynn Jenner and the Emmy-winning TV show, “Transparent,” Cortines not only offered a definition of common terms dealing with transgendered issues, but...

It may seem arbitrary, but there are usually half a dozen days off in the LAUSD school calendar that are called “Unassigned Days.” They are not for an official state or federal holiday, but somehow they usually coincide with a religious holiday. So, the first Unassigned Day of the year fell on Sept. 14 when teachers...