While overall scores on the recent Smarter Balanced tests for LA Unified were disappointing, there are quite a few schools proving they can beat the odds of poverty and language barriers. At least 16 qualify as diamonds in the rough — or as Superintendent Ramon Cortines recently described them, “pockets of excellence.” Despite an above-average number of...

When 50,000 iPads, laptops and Chromebooks went out to LA Unified students last year, about 1,500 were unaccounted for. So far this year about 1,000 were recovered and district computer techs now say they expect to recover the remaining 500 devices by sometime next week. “We’ve been like Sherlock Holmes,” said Bill Wherritt, a Facilities Division...

If you’re an employee at LAUSD or have a child going to a school in the district, expect a call this weekend to ask about what your preference is for a new school calendar. Last evening, Superintendent Ramon Cortines sent out a recorded robo-call that notified teachers and parents that the district will be making three attempts...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said yesterday he plans to initiate an immediate nationwide search to replace the district’s out-going chief of external affairs, Edgar Zazueta. “We are beginning the search immediately, we have put the word out,” Cortines told LA School Report at the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force meeting at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex....

By Kate Schweitzer Share this everywhere… Alyssa is 7!!! Not only is her mother a military veteran but, she took the time to teach her… Posted by Brenda Hatcher on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 When a teacher reprimands a student, you can safely assume the kid in question did something wrong. Maybe she pushed a classmate in line, or...

Experts predict the opt-out movement will get some of what it wants With up to 80 percent of students refusing to take federally mandated tests, policymakers are reviewing the national opt-out movement. Hechinger Report How my time at a “failing” high school blew me away With the implementation of state standards, many public schools have wound...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines dropped some news on the crowd Tuesday when he announced that Chief of External Affairs Edgar Zazueta is leaving the district. Zazueta, who was onstage at the time, moderating the district’s “Back to School” forum at the  Edward R. Roybal Learning Center,  is the district’s chief lobbyist in Sacramento and Washington D.C. “This...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines is praising the high performance of the district’s magnet schools on on the recent Smarter Balanced standardized tests, which based on a district analysis shows 65 percent of them scoring higher than the state average in English language arts and 56 percent of them scoring higher than average in math. “The performance...

By Issie Lapowsky On a cloudy Tuesday afternoon in San Marcos, California, Guadalupe Lopez is guiding me through Alvin Dunn Elementary’s concrete grid of a campus. Dressed in a black sweatshirt with Minnie Mouse ears on the hood, she’s striding along with the eager confidence of a soon-to-be 7th grader just weeks away from the first day of...

Report: Economy improves, but not for California’s poor kids In 24 states, the lot of poor children did improve slightly between 2013 and 2014, but in California, progress has been stagnant. KPCC Orange County says special ed students must comply with vaccination law Many parents who opposed the new vaccination law believed that special education...