An anti-bullying coalition created by LAUSD and the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission will hold an anti-bullying meeting at City Hall on Wednesday, November 7 at 6 p.m. Representatives, including LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia, City Council Members, and LAUSD student leaders will discuss ways to better prevent bullying in schools by creating policies...

Looking for an independent source of information about how LAUSD is doing?  You might want to check out Ed-Data, which is managed by the Education Data Partnership and recently uploaded 2011 – 2012 Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores for school districts across the state. As you can see, LAUSD’s API score showed...

Lots of school districts besides LAUSD failed to come to agreement with teachers unions about applying for the district version of Race to the Top funding from Washington. However, thanks to an all-out effort and a fair bit of compromise, Fresno was able to win an agreement with its local union, as were Denver, Las Vegas, and even...

A new plan to install solar power systems in 26 LAUSD schools will help schools create less pollution – and it should save the district $775,000 within a year of installation, according to a SolarCity press release. The 7.4-megawatt clean energy project, which will be installed by SolarCity, is expected to save LAUSD $25 million...

The deadline for the fourth round of school proposals for Public School Choice (PSC) is due next week, on October 31. LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has identified 13 low-performing schools to participate in what is called PSC 4.0.  This is a decrease from the previous year, when 33 schools were part of the process. Only...

Mediator Don Raska has been appointed to try to help resolve the teacher evaluation negotiations between LAUSD and the teachers union (UTLA), according to a UTLA newsletter. The October 19th issue of the United Teacher states that, “the union continues to push back against LAUSD’s proposal to link a percentage of a teacher’s evaluation to...

One of the lowest-performing schools in LAUSD, Samuel Gompers Middle School, opened two new learning gardens this week. The gardens were installed with a grant from a non-profit called Kitchen Community and are intended to help fight childhood obesity and diabetes. LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, who is strong proponent of linking nutrition and education, was...

The largest health foundation in the state, the California Endowment, is putting big money behind an issue not usually associated with health: student suspension and expulsion policies. Earlier this week, the Endowment ran a full-page advertisement in four major California newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, praising legislators for recently passing six statewide laws to...

The rise of outside money in LAUSD board elections has coincided with a spate of negative campaign advertising in recent elections. It’s a tactic that nobody claims to enjoy, but it seems to work. So it’s likely the upcoming campaigns leading to the March LAUSD election will continue the trend. “Welcome to the brave new...

Until recently, millions of dollars of special interest money flowed directly to candidates for their own campaigns (shown in red). However, the March election for three LAUSD Board seats promises to be dominated by a torrent of outside money from independent expenditure committees (IEs) – much the way super PACs have eclipsed campaign contributions at the...