Outside Spending Pours Into L.A. School Board Race Outside groups are mounting campaigns to influence the outcome of three races for seats on the Los Angeles Board of Education. LA Times See also: LA School Report Teachers’ Ratings Still High Despite New Measures High teacher rating results, among the first trickling out from states’ newly...

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten is scheduled to hold a Friday, February 8 press conference at Woodland Hills Academy to announce a $150,000 grant to the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). The grant is aimed at helping teachers create strong school improvement plans and prevent the need for any additional “parent trigger” actions...

L.A. Unified Misspent Millions Marked for School Lunches At least eight California school districts have misappropriated millions of dollars in funding intended to pay for meals for low-income students — the biggest culprit being the Los Angeles Unified School District, according to a state Senate watchdog group. LA Times See also: KPCC, LA Daily News...

Earlier today, in a show of support for a group of Seattle teachers who are refusing to administer a standardized computer test to students, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) urged its members to wear red and participate in what was called a “national day of action.” Watch a video of the teachers at Seattle’s Garfield High: The...

Conflicting priorities over how to spend an influx of $6 billion in statewide Prop. 30 funds are causing tensions between LAUSD and the teachers union, UTLA. As a recent UTLA newletter reveals, concerns about how the money will be spent are one of the reasons that the union is so focused on the outcome of...

With the March 5 election day now less than a month away, the Coalition for School Reform, the LA County Federation of Labor, and the Local 99 branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have each kicked their LAUSD School Board spending up a notch, but UTLA-PACE — a major player in past elections...

Brown Details How to Hold Districts Accountable Under Funding Reform Responding to criticism that he is offering flexibility without accountability, Gov. Jerry Brown has offered up specifics on how he would hold school districts responsible for extra money he is proposing to give them for high-needs children under his proposed sweeping reforms of how California...

Big Hollywood Donors Enter School Board Race for First Time Hollywood donates a lot of money to national political campaigns. Big players in “the industry” have also donated to Los Angeles City Hall races over the years. But L.A. Unified school board races have been way off the radars of these big donors. Until now....

Today, February 4, is the first day voters can apply for and vote with a vote-by-mail ballot in the March primary election — one of several upcoming deadlines as we head towards March 5. To help you keep things straight, LA School Report has made a handy schedule of the important election dates voters should remember: February...

L.A. Parent Group Applies Lessons From Compton, Adelanto Efforts to Take Over School  The 24th Street Elementary School Parent Union has received eight letters of interest from groups wanting a chance to reform the school. Six are from established charter schools, one is from a retired 24th Street teacher and one is from L.A. Unified...