The LA Unified school board dragged in at 9:27 p.m. Friday night, adjourning another closed meeting aimed at finding a new superintendent. After eight hours, they left with nothing to report to the public. The closed session items included the possibility of naming an acting superintendent now that Ramon Cortines is finishing off vacation days prior...

A Van Nuys High School student mounted a petition drive to avoid taking finals this week after an emailed threat of violence closed down all LA Unified schools. It didn’t work. Final exams went on, as they did at all other schools. Still, the organizer got more than 1,300 students to sign it over the past...

Associated Press and City News Service San Francisco Unified School District has received a threat similar to ones received earlier this week in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere, but investigators have determined it is not credible and the city’s schools remain open, school district officials said today. On Monday, a threat of violence prompted...

Star Wars 101: Teachers using the force to teach politics, myths, monsters In order to amp up student engagement in their classrooms, these teachers aren’t using any Jedi mind tricks. But they are using The Force. The 74, by Mark Keierleber Teacher: Why I stopped assigning homework to my third graders Teacher Lisa Nassar explains...

Citing an “abundance of caution” for children the second time this week, the LA Unified school board voted today to move two Valley schools to another location until June because of toxic fumes from a leaking gas storage facility. The unanimous vote by the seven-member board cleared the way to move 1,870 students in the...

Congressional agreement on a omnibus spending package will include $1.1 billion for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that administers service programs, including AmeriCorps. That will save the proposed cutting of 20,000 AmeriCorps positions that provide help to schools in unprivileged communities. City Year, which has 309 AmeriCorps members in Los Angeles, says that Christmas came early...

The LA Unified school board is meeting later today in open and closed sessions, and one of the items on the agenda appears to suggest that the members may appoint a temporary superintendent until they decide on a permanent successor to Ramon Cortines. The closed session agenda includes “Unrepresented Employee: Superintendent or Acting/Interim Superintendent of...

The 362-word email that prompted Superintendent Ramon Cortines to close down every school in the district on Tuesday has been obtained and released by ABC7. Rep. Brad Sherman and other leaders in California and New York were among those who analyzed the contents and pointed out numerous passages indicating that the author’s threats were not credible....

The Los Angeles police department is moving toward charging celebrated teacher Rafe Esquith with one count of inappropriate touching of a juvenile, LA School Report has learned. The single charge could come within a few weeks after being reviewed by the city attorney and U.S. district attorney’s offices, said LAPD Captain Julian Melendez, head of the...