Two issues that have the drawn LA Unified school board into unanticipated controversy move into the spotlight tomorrow when the board convenes its regular meeting for November. One is the public profile of Board President Richard Vladovic, as he awaits a consideration of a censure motion from Tamar Galatzan – the first motion of its...

As daylight faded and red brake lights of rush hour cast their eerie glow, a group of LA Unified teachers and students marched through downtown streets yesterday, demanding a reversal of district policies that value testing over “authentic” learning. Drivers honked and pumped their fists in solidarity as students waived their banners: “Technology for Teaching,...

All 338 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Cimarron Avenue Elementary in Hawthorne have iPads at their fingertips. The rollout has gone smoothly at the school, one of the first in LA Unified to receive the tablets when distribution began in August. “We’re rocking and rolling here,” said Cimarron’s principal, Cynthia Williams. Critics have called...

A slight plurality of LA Unified teachers said they would favor continuing the iPad program, according to a new UTLA survey that produced mixed results in a district contemplating the next phase of a billion dollar digital device program. The union poll was conducted over a week in late October, with 255 teachers from the...

California’s eighth graders made the biggest gain in reading scores in the country last year, according to the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Results for fourth and eighth grade reading and math were released today, “The resilience and tenacity of our schools have seen them through some...

I want to take a bit of editorial license here – actually, the editor’s license — to call attention to this: Chase Harrison, an 18-year-old senior at Millburn High School in northern New Jersey, won a seat last night for a one-year term on the Millburn Township School Board. He knocked off the board’s vice...

Over eight hours today, in another tedious LA Unified board meeting, members one-by-one pledged to forge ahead with the district’s ambitious technology program to bridge the digital divide for some of the nation’s poorest students. But for the first time, some board members signaled that the way forward may not include Apple iPads. The meeting...