• Adelanto parents lose charter school bid: On Friday, the Adelanto School Board rejected the petition by parents of Desert Trails Elementary (site of the recent parent trigger ruling) to convert their school into a charter, saying there wasn’t enough time to implement before the school year. The board voted, instead, to install a “community advisory council”...

• Teacher Evaluation Changes threatened by California Bill: AB 5, which is heading to the State Senate for a full vote after getting the nod from the appropriations committee on Thursday, would mandate that all aspects of teacher evaluation be subject to collective bargaining– which has been what UTLA has been asking for in Doe v. Deasy. LA Times [A number of ed...

• LAUSD, Teachers Union Spar Over Voluntary Evaluation System: A robo-call sent out to all UTLA members has their president, Warren Fletcher, urging them not to participate in a voluntary pilot program that evaluates teachers based on their students’ test scores. Deasy hit back at the union, saying, “What a shame we don’t have a partner...

• A Shorter School Year: Students at LA Unified this year will attend classes for only 175 days, 5 days fewer than last year, and 65 fewer than students in Japan. The decision was made by the school board due to budget constraints. Other districts chose to lay off more teachers. KPCC • Miramonte Elementary Teachers Return for...

• Schools Open, New and Old – Including Miramonte: By now, that first morning bell has rung, the children of Los Angeles are sitting quietly (ahem) at their desks, and 20 brand new schools have opened their doors for the first time. Superintendent John Deasy will visit a dozen or so schools, including Miramonte Elementary, where two...

Late Friday, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals voided the settlement on the Reed v. CA lawsuit, which had rewritten how teacher layoffs are conducted at 45 under-performing LAUSD schools. That settlement — result of a lawsuit brought by students in low performing schools who called the practice discriminatory– reversed the so-called ‘last in/first out’ practice, which has traditionally given...

• Deasy’s Big Speech: Lots of coverage of Superintendent John Deasy’s big speech to school administrators. LA Times, Daily News, CBS, NBC, La Opinion.  • Building a Better LAUSD: To complement Deasy’s speech, LAUSD produced a feel-good promotional video. Vimeo • Rally Calls For Fewer Police Citations Of LAUSD Students: 50 students, teachers and community activists performed street theater and installed...

• John Deasy’s State of the Schools Speech: The LAUSD superintendent just made a speech in front of principals and administrators. KPCC was live-blogging the affair, while the Daily News’ Barbara Jones was live-tweeting. CBS also had a preview. • Teacher From Freeway Chase Pleads Not Guilty to Molestation Charges: PE teacher Kip Richard Arnold, 51,...

• State schools suspend students at higher rates than rest of nation: A new report from UCLA says states and districts differ greatly in how frequently they suspend students.  LAUSD ranks 63rd out of nation’s biggest school districts. San Bernardino ranked 15th. LAT • Do Anti-Bullying Laws Help? California lawmakers will ask for a state audit on...

• Summer Ends Early For LAUSD Students: School starts in exactly one week! That’s three weeks earlier than it used to start for LAUSD. That’s because the district just moved to an “early-start” calendar, with the first semester ending at winter break, giving kids three weeks off around Christmas. Daily News • Cal State Cuts Transfers: California State...