Mayor Garcetti backs John Deasy, seeks to end feud between LAUSD leaders Amid mounting tension between Los Angeles Unified’s top administrators and the school board, Mayor Eric Garcetti expressed support Monday for Superintendent John Deasy and said he plans to meet with both sides in order to ensure the district’s academic progress doesn’t falter. Garcetti...

L.A. Unified seeks to end confusion and fights over parent trigger law It was billed as a bold attempt to give parents the power to transform their failing schools. But more than two years after California legislators passed the parent-trigger law, it has sparked so much controversy that even the measure’s author supports revisions. LA...

Los Angeles Unified iPad comes to San Fernando Valley school Having been part of a two-month trial run last year, the students at the arts-based high school could justifiably have been blasé about Thursday’s rollout of the Los Angeles Unified iPad project at their San Fernando campus. Instead, the seniors in teacher Faraaz Qureshi’s homeroom excitedly...

State Assembly defies feds, sends school testing overhaul to governor The California Assembly on Wednesday easily approved an overhaul of the state’s student testing system in which schools and parents would not receive test scores for at least a year. The vote of 51 to 22 was largely along party lines, with Democrats overwhelmingly in...

LAUSD moves to facilitate screening for parent volunteers Trying to encourage more parents to volunteer at local campuses, the Los Angeles Unified school board approved a plan Tuesday to make it easier to get necessary fingerprinting and tuberculosis screenings, although the South L.A. representative asked that her schools be excluded from the plan. LA Daily News...

U.S. secretary of education opposes California’s testing plan The nation’s top education official threatened Monday to withhold federal funds if California lawmakers approved pending legislation to revamp the state’s standardized testing system. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan issued the warning as AB 484 awaits a full vote of the Assembly and state Senate.  LA...

LAUSD revives effort to reopen four blighted West Valley schools Under pressure to provide classroom space to popular charter schools, Los Angeles Unified plans to seek proposals to redevelop and lease four long-closed campuses in the Woodland Hills area that could cost up to $80 million to restore. Daily News Zimmer wants new rules for campus...

California accelerates shift in student testing In a major shift in how California’s 6.2 million public school students are taught and tested, state officials plan to drop the standardized exams used since 1999 and replace them with a computerized system next spring. The move would advance new learning goals, called the Common Core, which are...

More districts in L.A. County taking less punitive approach to truancy A growing number of school districts and public agencies in Los Angeles County have joined a campaign to take a less punitive and more holistic approach to truancy — and education officials insist it’s paying off. School officials from all over the county held...