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Ballooning pension costs mean LAUSD and other California school districts are headed for cuts, Stanford study says
Pension payouts are growing so fast that California’s school districts are being forced to lay off staff and close schools, a Stanford professor and author of a new study says. LA Unified will have to cut spending by about 3 percent in 12 years in order to pay for the ballooning cost of its retirees’ pensions,...
By Sarah Favot | October 12, 2017
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‘Now is the time’ — Pepperdine gathers education policy voices to foster collaboration
“If ever there was a time to talk about collaboration, now is the time.” — Ryan J. Smith, executive director, The Education Trust-West Collaboration was the theme and aim of Pepperdine’s School of Public Policy’s first education conference, held Friday at the Malibu campus. The event brought together education policy leaders from Los Angeles...
By Sarah Favot | October 10, 2017
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‘Exorbitant’ fees for a ‘dearth’ of special education services — An LA school may lose its charter for fighting back against LAUSD policies
An independent charter school says LA Unified charges too much for special education services and offers too little, so it wants to hold onto the option to get those services elsewhere. But because the San Fernando Valley school hasn’t indicated who will provide those services — and hasn’t promised to use LA Unified’s — it...
By Sarah Favot | October 2, 2017
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LAUSD improves slightly on standardized tests but still lags behind state average
*UPDATED LA Unified’s scores on state standardized tests continue to fall below the state average, even though its students posted slightly better gains, according to results released Wednesday. But English learners made no improvement. Their near-stagnant scores last year had caused deep consternation in the district, with one board member saying “the data is miserable.”...
By Sarah Favot | September 27, 2017
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California called out as ‘a laggard in student achievement’ as test score improvement stalls
*UPDATED California’s public school students performed about the same this year as they did last year on standardized tests, with LA Unified students showing slightly more improvement. But you’d need a magnifying glass to see the differences. California’s improvement in math was so minuscule that for the first time the results were released in decimal points....
By Sarah Favot | September 27, 2017
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Local control trumps sleepy teens: California’s late-start bill couldn’t overcome opposition but may return next year
A bill that would allow middle and high schoolers to sleep in later failed to gain legislative support and will be reconsidered next year. The bill, SB 328 — a statewide prohibition against starting school before 8:30 a.m. for public middle and high schools — won only 26 of the 41 votes it needed in...
By Sarah Favot | September 18, 2017
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Exclusive: Ben Austin launches Kids Coalition to give LA students a legal right to a high-quality education
The man who helped craft the state’s parent trigger law and who founded Parent Revolution has launched a new organization that aims to put a kids-first agenda into practice and give LA Unified students and their parents legal rights in decisions about their education. The organization is called Kids Coalition and will be headed by...
By Sarah Favot | September 18, 2017
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Plans for state-run STEM school in downtown LA die as bill fails to win support
A controversial bill that would have established California’s first state-run STEM school ran into a wall of opposition, including from a broad coalition of unions, and failed to gain enough support as the legislative session ended Friday. The bill, AB 1217, was authored by Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, D-San Fernando, and Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Canada Flintridge....
By Sarah Favot | September 18, 2017
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California approves its ESSA plan, adding more teachers to those deemed ‘effective’
The California State Board of Education voted Wednesday to approve its plan to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, culminating a year and a half of work with dozens of public meetings and comment periods. Whether it will be accepted, however, is far from clear. The plan is required under the new federal...
By Sarah Favot | September 13, 2017
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Exclusive: School autonomy vs. teen sleep — Charter schools join opposition to California’s late-start bill after last-minute addition
California charter middle and high schools would be prohibited from starting school before 8:30 a.m. under a bill that will be voted on by the Assembly this week after a concern was raised that they would have an unfair advantage over district schools for enrollment. The addition of charter schools this month prompted the California...
By Sarah Favot | September 11, 2017