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Morning Read: Board Buys iPads, Revises Trigger

LA School Report | June 19, 2013



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LAUSD Board Passes $6.2 Billion Budget
The Los Angeles Unified school board passed a $6.2 billion budget for 2013-14 on Tuesday, the first time in five years that deep cuts and gut-wrenching layoffs haven’t been part of the financial plan.  LA Daily News


LAUSD Spending $30 million to Buy 30,000 iPads for Students
The Los Angeles Unified board Tuesday approved a $30 million contract to buy iPads for 30,000 students, the first phase in an ambitious plan to equip every pupil with a computer tablet within the next 14 months. LA Daily News

See also: KTLA, CBS News


LAUSD Passes Guidelines for Parent Trigger, Seeks Law’s Repeal
Following a ruckus over the use of the Parent Trigger law at two Los Angeles Unified schools, the board set guidelines Tuesday for to better deal with efforts to handle the takeover and transformation of low-achieving campuses. LA Daily News


School officials vote against renewing Nahuatl-themed charter
Supporters of a high-profile charter school with a focus on Nahuatl culture wept and held each other after the Los Angeles Board of Education voted to close its high school campus. LA Times


Nearly half of Crenshaw High’s Teachers Won’t Return this Fall
Students at Crenshaw High School will have a lot of new teachers when they return to school in the fall. That’s because roughly half of the school’s teachers were not rehired as part of a campus reorganization ordered by Superintendent John Deasy. KPCC


National Group Says Teacher Training Programs in California, Nationwide are Deficient
A study out Tuesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality concluded that many teacher education programs in California and nationwide are mediocre and not worth attending. KPCC

See also: LA Times, EdWeek


Ex-USC professor Indicted in Child Sex Crimes Caught in Mexico
A former USC professor who was named this week as one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives after being indicted for alleged sex crimes against children overseas has been captured in Mexico, the bureau said Tuesday night. Walter Lee Williams, 64, was arrested Tuesday evening by Mexican authorities, Bill Lewis, FBI assistant director in charge, said in a statement. Williams was on the bureau’s 10-most-wanted list. LA Times


Stephen Winkler Tossed off Saugus Union School District Board
Winkler’s residency status had been the result of a months-long investigation by the district to determine whether he lives at an address in Valencia, as he claimed, or at an address in Sylmar, where he admits renting a room. Fox News


Education Chief Lets States Delay Use of Tests in Decisions About Teachers’ Jobs
Acknowledging that the nation’s educators face large challenges in preparing students for more rigorous academic standards and tests, Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, told state education officials on Tuesday that they could postpone making career decisions about teachers based on performance evaluations tied to new tests. New York Times

See also: EdWeek, Huffington Post


White House Guidelines: Don’t Arm Teachers
Yesterday, the Obama administration released the comprehensive emergency guidelines for school districts it had first promised after the school shootings in Newtown, Conn. this winter. EdWeek


Report: Humanities, Social Science Education Needed for Innovation Along With STEM
A workforce lacking robust a humanities and social science education could be just as detrimental to the country’s future economic competitiveness as one deficient in science and technological expertise, according to an American Academy of Arts and Sciences report released Wednesday. Washington Post


Preschools Aim to Better Equip Low-Income Parents
Yesica Gonzales was an inexperienced teenage mother watching her high school friends go off to college and work when representatives from a San Antonio-based family-services organization, Avance, literally came knocking at her door. EdWeek

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