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L.A. Unified finally hiring teachers again
After an extended period of layoffs and hiring freezes, the Los Angeles Unified School District has resumed bringing on new teachers, while also being more selective about their quality than in the past. The nation’s second-largest school system forecasts hiring 1,333 instructors for next year; it hired 718 for the current year. The total teaching force numbers about 26,000. LA Times
Draft regs detail how much districts must spend on high-needs students
The draft regulations that districts have been waiting for to guide their decisions under the Local Control Funding Formula are now out. On Jan. 16, the State Board of Education will vote to adopt them, setting in motion six months of planning leading to districts’ first budgets subject to new accountability requirements under the state’s new K-12 finance system. EdSource
New computer-only format of GED exam spurs competing tests
The creator of the General Educational Development test, long the measure of high school equivalency for dropouts, has unveiled a revamped computer-only exam that has spurred competition from two other test providers letting students decide which format they prefer. The new version of the 71-year-old GED, which debuted last week, for the first time does away with pencil-to-paper test sheets. LA Times
California charter schools are opening for the wrong reasons, experts say
In cities across the country, charter schools have become known for anxiety-fueled lotteries, bitter disputes over sharing buildings with traditional schools, and teaching methods that are sometimes unorthodox. But in California, as well as some other states, charter schools have increasingly become associated with something more basic yet elusive: money. The Hechinger Report
Editorial: Schools across the country are rethinking “zero tolerance” discipline policies under which children have been suspended, even arrested, for minor offenses like cursing, getting into shoving matches and other garden-variety misbehavior that in years past would have been resolved with detention or meetings with a child’s parents. New York Times