House Votes to Shift No Child Left Behind Oversight to States For the first time in a dozen years, the House of Representatives passed a significant education bill on Friday, rewriting No Child Left Behind, President George W. Bush’s signature law governing how federal funds are spent in public schools. NY Times LAUSD’s Grumpy Old...

Is Charter School Co-Location Tearing Public Schools Apart? The practice of housing a traditional public school and a charter school on the same campus is known as “co-location.” Charters are publicly funded yet independently operated, and are intended to encourage innovation and improve student performance. Under Proposition 39 charter schools were given the right to...

Council District 6 Candidates Battle Over Teacher Abuse Issue Accusations of a cover-up involving a Pacoima teacher charged with molesting school children are roiling the District 6 race, prompting personal confessions and counterattacks. Candidate Nury Martinez, a former school board member, revealed this week she was molested as a 3-year-old by her Van Nuys neighbor....

CORE Districts to Make Final Personal Pitch for No Child Left Behind Waiver Quickly running out of time, a delegation from nine California school districts will go to Washington this week to make a last pitch to federal officials for a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law. Districts are up against deadlines for...

California Holds Out Against Obama’s Education Vision California has defiantly refused to follow the administration’s lead in grading the performance of teachers and using those measurements to reward the best teachers and punish the worst. The state is one of very few that have told Washington that under no conditions will it put in place...

Teachers Union Gives Poor Grade to L.A. Schools Supt. Deasy The L.A. teachers union pressed its campaign of criticism against L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy Thursday with the release of a survey in which 85% of those who responded rated him below average or poor. LA Times See also: Daily News, KPCC, CBS Groups Defend...

Teachers Union to Unveil ‘Evaluation’ of L.A. Schools Supt. Deasy Continuing its aggressive rhetoric, the Los Angeles teachers union announced plans Thursday to release a performance evaluation of L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. Don’t expect him to get a sterling grade. LA Times See also: LA School Report  L.A. Unified Aims to Revive Arts Education...

Judge Refuses to Throw Out Lawsuits Against LAUSD in Miramonte Sex Abuse Scandal Attorneys for LAUSD asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuits, but the judge sided with a group of attorneys representing 61 children and 73 parents and accused the district of concealing information about former Miramonte Elementary School third-grade teacher Mark Berndt. CBS...

LAUSD Summer School a ‘Sorry’ Experience with Limited Offerings All 5,100 seats were reserved for students needing to make up a failed class, with priority given to ninth-graders who’d gotten an F in algebra and incoming seniors who had flunked a course that was required to graduate. LA Daily News  Redlands Superintendent Denies Cover-Up of...

Supt. John Deasy Faces Rocky Relationship with New LAUSD President The private warning from Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy was clear: If Richard Vladovic became president of the Board of Education, Deasy was poised to resign and cause a maelstrom in the nation’s second-largest school system. LA Times  LAUSD Student Truancy Rates Above County,...