LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines today unveiled a plan to phase out the School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP), a specialized program serving 10,000 low-income four-year olds, and expand transitional kindergarten. Cortines’ strategy represents a complete overhaul of district services by 2016-17 for thousands of the early education students who often begin school at a...

We openly speculated here at LA School Report less than a month ago that Steve Zimmer appeared in position to be elected the next LA Unified school board president in July. Not so fast, Kemosabe. Board President Richard Vladovic’s tenure is set to expire in July due to a two-year term limit, but that may no longer...

By Susan Dynarski There is widespread concern over threats to privacy posed by the extensive personal data collected by private companies and public agencies. Some of the potential danger comes from the government: The National Security Agency has swept up the telephone records of millions of people, in what it describes as a search for...

Parent trigger dispute over Anaheim school heads to trial The Anaheim City School Board and district leaders have been at odds with parents at Palm Lane Elementary School. Ed Source Common Core tests largely over; now comes the wait for scores The massive effort to assess the students in grades three through eight and eleven...

California’s new education budgeting process, known as Local Control Funding Formula, was designed to shrink the achievement gap among students by funneling more money to schools’ neediest pupils, but a year-long study of LA Unified shows the district has so far failed to fulfill that mission. The report by UC Berkeley and Communities for Los...

As part of a broader effort to fight declining enrollment due to students leaving in droves for charter schools, the LA Unified board voted this week to reconfigure its communications department to also include a marketing arm that will produce brochures and short videos highlighting the achievements and attributes of its schools. The idea behind the...

By Dian Schaffhauser Digital natives aren’t as tech-savvy as they think they are — at least, not according to their bosses. American millennials (those between the ages of 16 and 34) may be the first generation that grew up with computers and Internet access, but all that time spent glued to a small screen hasn’t translated...

LA Unified explores transitional kindergarten option for more 4-year-olds The state’s largest school district is considering expanding its transitional kindergarten to more 4-year-olds – a move that could affect other districts statewide. Ed Source Discounting play time in kindergarten Supporters of early reading requirements say students who are not proficient by third grade are four...

LA Unified released a new $7.1 billion budget today that shows a big increase for next year, marking the second year the district will receive funding increases in the hundreds of millions due to higher state revenues. But despite the added injection of cash —the general fund will grow by more than $700 million over...

The LA Unified school board unanimously approved $79.6 million in bond funding on Tuesday to help fix the problematic and glitchy student data computer system known as MiSiS, but it also agreed to do some soul searching as a result of the expenditure. The request for the funds from the district came with a unanimous...