The NBA’s LA Clippers have given $3 million to City Year, which helps service low-performing schools in low economic areas of Los Angeles. The announcement was made at a City Year opening day ceremony on Friday with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and LA Unified board president Steve Zimmer.  City Year has 309 AmeriCorps members...

Teachers and students are getting devices with no lessons on how to use them. It’s all about iPads. Students can hack the tablets. Wrong, wrong, and well, sorta wrong. That’s the word that LAUSD wants to get out. The computer technology program at LAUSD gets a bad rap. Of course, the botched $1.3 billion iPad implementation and...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said yesterday the district is close to finalizing a $6 million-plus settlement deal with Apple and Pearson over the botched iPad program. In a statement this afternoon, the district confirmed that it was engaged in “cooperative discussions with our vendors” to resolve concerns about the the companies’ contribution to the district’s...

It’s just too hot out there. All LAUSD school teams planning outdoor sports competitions today have had to cancel or reschedule due to the heat. LA Unified sent out a memo yesterday, canceling activities held outside before 6 p.m. Almost immediately, a flyer was posted on the basketball courts at the Miguel Contreras Learning Center,...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines delivered a “jump start” to the newly-reformed Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force at its first meeting of the school year yesterday. He addressed such concerns as an already-aging supply of computers, a change in task force leadership and his renewed effort to get a device in the hands of every student in...

* UPDATED In another testy exchange with LA Unified, a lawyer for teacher Rafe Esquith said district investigators are asking “loaded questions” of past and present students about the conduct of the teacher. The district called for a hearing this month with Esquith, who is still on payroll while in “teacher jail,” but the attorney turned down...

As a heat wave engulfed the region yesterday, LA Unified officials fielded 346 calls to fix air conditioning units. By the end of today, they were expecting at least that many more. Tacked on to an existing backlog of calls for air conditioner repair since before school began, LA Unified has about 2,600 requests for...

  LA Unified administrators have named eight schools using technology in ways that could be replicated throughout the district for how teachers and administrators have blended the use of computers, iPads and Internet-learning with their school curriculum. The approach these schools are taking could become the basis for a district-wide technology policy that would replace...

For 35 years, a group of mostly women gathered to work with clay at their adult education ceramics class, but now it may be canceled due to an LAUSD Catch-22 snafu. Adults, students, grandmothers and their grandchildren have attended the Adult Education Ceramics class at Mark Twain Middle School, and sometimes the class draws as many...