Morning Read: LA Unified Eyes Charters for Shuttered Schools
LA School Report | September 9, 2013
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LAUSD revives effort to reopen four blighted West Valley schools
Under pressure to provide classroom space to popular charter schools, Los Angeles Unified plans to seek proposals to redevelop and lease four long-closed campuses in the Woodland Hills area that could cost up to $80 million to restore. Daily News
Zimmer wants new rules for campus sharing
Thirteen years after voters allowed charter schools to share campuses with traditional public schools, the situation has turned volatile in Los Angeles. Steve Zimmer, a member of the Board of Education over the Los Angeles Unified School District, will propose a measure at Tuesday’s board meeting aimed at stopping the fighting. SCPR
Deasy pulls support for speedup of standardized testing overhaul
A fissure has emerged in widespread support for legislation that would speed up the overhaul of the state standardized testing system: L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy has withdrawn his support. Deasy was initially included in pronouncements about the deal as a key backer and as evidence that the plan enjoyed endorsement across the ideological spectrum. LA Times
Charter School Face-Off
Just in time for the new school year: Fresh claims (and counter-claims) about whether charter schools cream the best students or push out those who can’t keep up. A study published last week finds no statistical evidence that charter schools dump their lowest-performing students. The research found that struggling students were about as likely to leave traditional public schools as charters. Politico
Documentarians aim to start a national conversation about early education
An argument in favor of universal preschool and publicly funded early care for infants and toddlers will hit the small screen early next year in the form of a new PBS documentary series, “The Raising of America.” The documentary series, produced with funding from the Kellogg Foundation and the California Endowment, features experts from the U.S. and abroad discussing their research in between images and interviews of families with young children. EdSource
‘Trial run’ for Common Core
Editorial: A proposed bill to overhaul California’s standardized school testing system includes some provisions that are bold and forward-looking. After all, there is no point in continuing with the old tests of student progress in English and math this year when teachers are supposed to be preparing for the switch to the new Common Core curriculum in the 2014-15 school year. But in other ways, AB 484 is a step backward. LA TImes
How one great teacher was wronged by flawed evaluation system
Editorial: Jenn is a teacher of middle-school students. Her school is in a small city district that has limited resources. The majority of kids in the school receive free or reduced priced lunch and about 40% are black or Latino. Many are English language learners. Lots of them are homeless. Washington Post