Morning Read: LA Unified, Charters — A Space Odyssey
LA School Report | August 23, 2013
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Charters and LA Unified Fighting Over Space on Shared Campuses
The Los Angeles Unified School District filed papers with the state Supreme Court this week opposing a claim by charter schools that the district is hogging space on campuses, in violation of a voter-approved initiative. The case involves co-location – when a charter and traditional public school share a school site. KPCC
UTLA Relaunches Teacher Poll on Common Core Training
Saying its “work is not done,” the Los Angeles teachers union has reopened its online survey, asking members about the progress of their training for the new Common Core curriculum taking effect next year. The survey by United Teachers Los Angeles comes as the Los Angeles Unified school board is debating how to spend $113 million in state money coming to the district for Common Core training. LA Daily News
A Seismic Shift on the L.A. Unified School Board
Editorial: Oh, what a difference a switch from Nury Martinez to Monica Ratliff makes. It’s not that Ratliff, who so far appears to be the same independent thinker who ran a successful underdog campaign against an opponent with scads of money behind him as well as political connection, made any radical waves. It’s more that the shift from Martinez, a reliable reform vote, to the more questioning Ratliff, changed the dynamic of the other people on the dais. LA Times
LAUSD Has Deal for Ad-free Bing Searches
Students and staff at L.A. Unified School District can now use the Microsoft Bing search engine without having to see ads or adult-content links in their search results. The partnership between Microsoft’s Bing search unit and several major school districts is aimed at providing students a safer experience online while drawing more users to the country’s most-used search engine behind runaway leader Google. LA Times
Key Education Bills Await Action as Session Deadline Looms
Whatever education bills the Legislature passes in the next four weeks will pale in importance compared to its monumental achievement of 2013, the Local Control Funding Formula, Gov. Jerry Brown’s sweeping school finance and accountability plan that legislators enacted as part of the state budget in June. But key bills do await action, as legislators head toward the end of session on Sept. 13. EdSource
Are High-Risk and District No Child Waivers Illegal?
An unprecedented set of recent Education Department decisions about No Child Left Behind waivers is at the least an overreach and at the very worst illegal, a chorus of critics say. Politico
The Right Reasons to Pick a College
Commentary: As professors and presidents who have taught and advised thousands of undergraduates, we suggest a very different approach to high school seniors frantically trying to decide which colleges are best for them. Consider where you will thrive, both in the near term and after you graduate. LA Times