Could a teacher strike be on the horizon? In ratcheting up pressure on LA Unified to negotiate for salary increases for its members, UTLA President Warren Fletcher is raising the specter of a strike as a way to force the issue. He writes in the latest issue of the union’s monthly, United Teacher, “In any...

Via SI&A Cabinet Report | By Tom Chorneau In selling the landmark restructuring of school finance to the public and skeptical educators, Gov. Jerry Brown emphasized two seemingly compatible themes. One, that more money needed to go to the neediest students as a matter of civil justice. And two, that local school boards – not...

A  story published in the Los Angeles Times yesterday reported that LA Unified’s plan to purchase district-wide iPads would cost significantly more than originally estimated. But according to district officials there’s been no change at all to the cost of the iPads since the district signed the contract with Apple in July. “This is not...

Let’s say an alien spaceship somehow descended on yesterday’s two LA Unified meetings concerning the district’s iPad program. It is entirely possible the ETs would end up with the impression that the district was months, perhaps even a year away from launching one of the most expensive and high profile projects the school board has...

Nearly $8 million in new public and private revenue is enabling The California Center for College and Career to expand a program that links career and technical education with college preparedness. The Linked Learning District Initiative is currently providing technical assistance and coaching to high schools in LA Unified and eight other districts offering career-based learning and workplace...

It’s a big meeting day at LA Unified’s downtown headquarters, with three committees convening one after another starting this afternoon. At 1 o’clock, it’s the Curriculum and Instruction Committee, chaired by Marguerite LaMotte; followed at 3 p.m. by the Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee, led by Bennett Kayser; and at 5:30 by the Common Core...

Via The Los Angeles Times | By Howard Blume Providing Apple iPads to Los Angeles students will cost nearly $100 more apiece — or $770 per tablet, a new school district budget shows. This potential sticker shock can be avoided, but only after the L.A. Unified School District has spent at least $400 million for...

The number of LA Unified 12th-graders taking the SAT test rose last year, along with the District’s average test scores on critical reading, mathematics, and writing portions of the exam, according to new data from the College Board, which develops the test. Nearly half of the most recent graduating class took the SAT, 22,106 seniors for...