When it comes to democracy, there’s theory and then there’s reality. UTLA endorsed Bernie Sanders with great fanfare, soaring rhetoric, and widespread media attention last month, but they skimped on one key ingredient: a completely democratic process. It is crucial for UTLA to engage its membership fully when forming their policy priorities and positions. Yet,...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report With 310,000 members, more than 400 employees and $200 million in annual revenue, the California Teachers Association is a large-scale enterprise. It wields great influence at the statehouse, but its presence is felt in the smallest communities throughout the state. Nothing happens in education or...

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is on the map. There is solid evidence that SEL matters a great deal for important life outcomes including success in school, college entry and completion, and later earnings. We also know that SEL can be taught and nurtured in schools, resulting in significant impacts such as improvements in classroom...

Few things are more important to educators than our students’ growth. We track their progress and proficiency, we listen to their concerns, we identify obstacles that stand in their way, and we do everything possible to help them overcome those obstacles. So when officials at the California State University system announce they’re considering increasing the...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report The representative bodies of United Teachers Los Angeles have voted to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. UTLA is the first teachers union to endorse a 2020 presidential candidate, which is more of an issue than whether...

A child’s educational foundation begins at home — no matter what that house may look like. Socioeconomic class and racial identity do not determine how committed parents are to their child’s success, because families and dedicated school leaders come in all colors and tax brackets. But let’s be real: Being white and wealthy does open...

In a Nov. 4 commentary on LA School Report, Jeimee Estrada, the executive director of Educators for Excellence, presents a rational and compelling set of reasons why growth data should be the basis for measuring schools and students. Especially important is her focus on how the use of growth data better serves students on the...

“Why can’t we just teach kids to add numbers anymore? It seems like 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 4 these days.” As an educator, I have encountered this conversation in parent-teacher conferences, with my chiropractor, and numerous times at parties and on airplanes, to name just a few occasions. People want to know why students...

After years of growth, the future of California’s charter sector is in doubt. With the passage of Assembly Bill 1505, which places numerous restrictions on the expansion and operation of charter schools in the Golden State, opponents of charters have claimed their biggest prize since the 2016 election when President Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, replaced...

The release of the Nation’s Report Card last week was the exclamation point following a long line of 2018-19 state exam results that came out across the country in the last few months. There are three things I expect to hear every year around this time: ●  We don’t even need to see the results. You...