On Thursday, a three-judge Court of Appeal overturned a trial court’s decision in the case of Vergara v. California, upholding the state’s existing education laws in a ruling of significance for millions of public school students in the state and across the country. (Read more about the sharply divided reactions after the ruling). The real implications of Thursday’s decision, however,...

California Virtual Academies: Is online charter school network cashing in on failure? A growing network of online academies, operated by a Virginia company traded on Wall Street called K12 Inc., is failing key tests used to measure educational success. By Jessica Calefati, San Jose Mercury News 5 reasons Granada Hills Charter is vying for its...

When LA Unified and five other school districts unveiled a new school accountability system in February, it represented California’s first significant move toward incorporating more than just test scores while also valuing how well the neediest students are performing. The School Quality Improvement Index, which was developed by the California Office to Reform Education (CORE), is...

An Airbnb for school choice! The Tesla of curriculum! A Fitbit that tracks student learning! We’ll find out if these are real pitches at the 2016 ASU GSV Summit in San Diego this week — probably not — where an impressive gathering of entrepreneurs, policy leaders, superintendents and investors will convene to discuss ideas aimed...

It was bound to happen sooner or later. In implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act, the nation’s new education law, the odds were high that the U.S. Department of Education would issue a regulation meant to protect the rights of poor children (for instance), that congressional Republicans would interpret as the department’s effort to chew...

Retiree benefits become a flashpoint between charters, traditional schools Financial challenges are all-but-universal in the education world, and retiree benefits are particularly costly. The latest battle is over who should pay for an employee’s health benefits after retirement. LA Unified’s unfunded liability for employee benefits has escalated to $13.6 billion. By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times...

The day after the state Court of Appeal ruled that the job protections for teachers do not predominantly harm minority students, the key players in the case said they feel confident the California Supreme Court will take up the issue. The three-judge panel reversed a landmark 2014 ruling by Superior Judge Rolf Treu, who struck...

Yep, it’s just a toilet. That’s what the students are saying at Santee Education Complex where today they’ve become the first LA Unified school to have a gender-neutral restroom. The issue has become controversial throughout the country, with some states passing laws restricting transgendered people’s restroom use and boycotts being waged against certain cities and states. The...

Garcetti proposes free year of community college for LAUSD graduates At his State of the City address, Mayor Eric Garcetti said LA will commit to giving every graduate of LA Unified one free year of community college. Funding would come from the community college district, the city and a private philanthropist. ABC7  44 LA Unified schools...

The California Court of Appeal on Thursday overturned a lower court ruling that had challenged teacher tenure and declared school employment laws unconstitutional. The nine student plaintiffs intend to appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, according to a statement from StudentsMatter, a group representing the students. The three-judge panel unanimously reversed Vergara v....