The first big step was getting a pay raise. That happened earlier this year. So what’s next for UTLA? United Teachers Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl says extensive input from teachers over the summer points to conditions in the classroom and the future of health benefits as among the issues most important to the union membership. He...

* UPDATED UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl said the teachers union is planning an aggressive campaign to oppose Eli Broad and other wealthy foundation leaders who have announced plans for a major expansion of charter schools in LA Unified. In a wide-ranging interview that focused on the state of charters in the district, Caputo-Pearl was highly...

The AUP is becoming the RUP. “That’s to prevent unauthorized access and … to comply with CIPA, COPPA and FERPA. Furthermore, the RUP clarifies the educational purpose of District technology.” Got it? That’s an excerpt from a new document that parents and students were given last week for any plan of going online or using...

The anticipated thousands of 7th graders being sent home for not having their vaccinations didn’t quite happen last week, the first week of school. LA Unified students were at 93 percent compliance, according to Ellen T. Morgan of the district communications office. That percentage “increases every day,” she said. There are about 36,000 7th graders...

LA Unified students are learning about water conservation methods needed locally because of the drought, and the effort got a big boost last week from a $50,000 federal grant. An award from the Environmental Protection Agency is intended to support a pilot program to teach students how to conserve water. It’s part of the “One...

Some think it is a threat to the public education system. Some welcome it. Members of the LA Unified school board have reacted quite differently to the announcement that the Broad, Keck and Walton Family Foundations are planning to expand the number of charter schools in the district to serve well beyond the 101,000 students...

Now that the MiSiS crisis seems to be in the rear-view mirror, Superintendent Ramon Cortines is focusing on another difficult issue for LAUSD — class sizes. “We are now beginning to make necessary adjustments to class size,” he said in a statement released today. “For instance, we can open a new class and assign an additional...

In a memo regarding the Smarter Balanced Assessments, LA Unified officials explained to Superintendent Ramon Cortines and members of the school board how the new test is so different from its predecessor and why scores may appear lower than in the past. Cynthia Lim, executive director of the district’s Office of Data and Accountability, said...