By Teresa Watanabe | Via The Los Angeles Times L.A. Unified officials are coming under fire for allowing their attorneys to argue that a 14-year-old student was mature enough to consent to sex with her middle school math teacher. The arguments were made in a civil case that was filed last year by the student,...

Building on her success investigating LA Unified’s controversial iPad program, Board Member Monica Ratliff is now asking for an overall examination into how the district allocates support for legal matters as a way to find added funding for improving school safety. In two resolutions set to come before the board next Tuesday, Ratliff is calling...

The Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) has been named No. 1 in Security magazine’s rankings of the K-12 education sector for the fifth straight year. The magazine analyzed key factors such as active shooter training, asset and theft protection and cyber security in assessing the security forces around the nation’s schools. “This honor could not have...

* UPDATED The organization Parent Revolution is holding its first ever Parent Power Convention this weekend at LA Trade-Technical College. The group has backed the Public School Choice and “Parent Trigger” laws in California. “Organized parent leaders will be speaking in one voice, and outlining a common set of principals and vision for the future of...

Via The Hechinger Report | By Jonas Chartock and Ross Wiener  An abundance of recent books, research and headlines present growing evidence that our nation’s schools can and must do a better job of preparing teachers for the experiences they’ll face in the classroom. They show that if educators really knew how to address the challenges...

* UPDATED As contract negotiations plod along between LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, the issue of class size reduction has taken on a new urgency for Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who plans to shrink the number of students in middle school and high school classrooms by the end of the year. “I’m not going...

College students who major in education find an easier path to high grades and graduation compared with their peers with other majors, according to a new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). The report, “Easy A’s and What’s Behind Them,” studied graduation data from 500 higher education institutions and found that 44...

The head of Parent Revolution said today that LA Unified has reversed course, lifting the ban on using the “Parent Trigger” law this year to overhaul failing district schools. “As one of Superintendent Cortines’s first moves, it’s a sign that the district will be respectful of the law,” Ben Austin, founder of the group that...

Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the largest charter network in LA Unified is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and based on performance, there is much to celebrate. The Alliance schools, which include 17 high schools and 9 middle schools, are all located in low-income neighborhoods but have an overall high school graduation rate of 94...