By Misti Kemmer I grew up around drugs and alcohol.  At nine years old, I manned the kegs at weekend barbecues for my aunts and uncles where I was surrounded by a cloud of marijuana smoke.  But even at that early age, I knew that I wanted something more.  I was determined to be the...

The LA Unified school board voted unanimously yesterday to approve a “Fiscal Stabilization Plan” that calls for cuts, layoffs and smarter spending decisions to balance the 2015-2016 budget by June 30. In a separate vote, the board agreed, 5-2, to issue more than 600 teacher layoff notices for the first time in two years. Despite massive...

CA vs. feds on student testing back in play State officials acknowledged Tuesday sidetracking a request to be excused from federal accountability mandates. SI&A Cabinet Report For parents, a new way to view test scores The vocabulary has changed, and so have the numbers and the format for state testing. Ed Source Proposal to reopen...

Superintendent Ramon Cortines told the LA Unified board today that he believes the state will delay using statewide computerized test results for any official measures. “The word on the street is that they’re looking favorably that this year’s test will not count,” he said during a discussion of the the district’s use of computers for...

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson called today an “exciting day” as students around the state began taking the new online, Common Core aligned Smarter Balanced test. Torlakson kicked off new testing era for the state expressing enthusiasm and confidence in the new testing system, which he called an “academic checkup.” Fifty-eight thousand students were...

LA Unified is appealing a decision that threw out its lawsuits against three major banks it had accused of racially biased mortgage lending, according to Reuters. The district argues that the lending practices led to foreclosures in the Los Angeles area and a reduction in tax revenue for the district. Last month, U.S. District Judge Otis...

By Marilyln Geewax | National Public Radio In this country, all children are supposed to have a shot at success — a chance to jump “from rags to riches” in one generation. Even if riches remain out of reach, then the belief has been that every hard-working American should be able to go from poverty...

LAUSD budget to end year in black; next year’s outlook cloudy Revenue projections suggest a more positive outlook this school year than next for LAUSD. KPCC One in three California students reported being bullied One in three California middle school and high school students reported having been harassed or bullied at least once in the...

New recommendations from a statewide task force would have huge ramifications for LA Unified and its roughly 82,000 special education students. The Statewide Task Force on Special Education’s report, “One System: Reforming Education to Serve all Students,” calls for a number of blockbuster moves, including a much greater integration of special education students into general education...

While district officials scrambled to sort out budget deficit issues last week, the Information Technology Department made progress on solving LA Unified’s costly student data management system problems, launching a more user-friendly MISIS website. In his latest weekly update, Superintendent Ramon Cortines wrote, “The new website serves as a gateway for a variety of information needs,...