Who is new LA Unified Supt. Michelle King? If King has had nonconformist ideas about how to run the behemoth system or turn around lagging student achievement, she’s never made them widely known. Los Angeles Times, by Howard Blume Brown says it’s time to abandon API to judge schools’ performance Brown said the new federal...

* UPDATED After a three-month nationwide search, the LA Unified school board today kept it all in the family, naming Michelle King, a district teacher and administrator for nearly 30 years, to serve as its new superintendent. She succeeds Ramon Cortines whom she served as chief deputy until he stepped down last month. The 54-year-old...

Michelle King, the new LA Unified superintendent, is a district “lifer,” having worked all of her professional career in the district as a teacher, principal, magnet coordinator and top administrator. She also is a product of LA Unified, having attended Palisades High School. King, 54, served as senior deputy superintendent of school operations under former...

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case that could undermine the financial stability of teacher unions in California and 23 other states. The lawsuit, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, challenges the right of states to require public sector employees to pay compulsory dues to unions doing collective bargaining on their behalf. Even employees who...

*UPDATED One day later than the rest of the district, students from two schools in Porter Ranch impacted by a major gas leak are expected to begin classes tomorrow at two different schools miles away after LA Unified crews worked over the winter break to prep the sites. The 1,850 students from Porter Ranch Community School and Castlebay...

* UPDATED LA Unified’s selection of a new superintendent could end as early as this afternoon with the board announcing a successor to Ramon Cortines after a months-long search. The finalists are believed to be Michelle King, the current interim, and Kelvin Adams, superintendent of public schools in St. Louis. A special board meeting has been...

By Lisa Leff Soaring tax revenues have carried per-pupil education spending in California beyond where it stood before the recession, but even the record sum proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown is unlikely to reverse the state’s standing as a comparative miser when it comes to investing in public schools, advocates and education officials said. Brown,...

L.A. schools insider and an outsider emerge as favorites to lead the district Attention appears to be focused on two candidates: Deputy Supt. Michelle King, an LAUSD insider, and Kelvin Adams, a superintendent from St. Louis. Los Angeles Times, by Howard Blume What students and parents are expecting from the Porter Ranch relocation When the...

After a rash of suicides by local teenagers’ hanging themselves, jumping off rooftops and throwing themselves in front of subways, the mayor of Nagoya, Japan turned to LA Unified for help, and what he got is an anti-bullying campaign that is now a model for schools in Japan. Holly Priebe-Diaz, who helped put together the LAUSD anti-bullying...