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LAUSD approves $113M budget to train teachers for Common Core
After debating nearly two hours and voting down a proposed compromise, the Los Angeles Unified board on Tuesday approved a plan for spending $113 million to implement a new curriculum — the same budget that triggered the resignation of the district’s instructional chief when it was rejected last week. Over the last month, the board has been discussing the best way to spend state money to prepare educators, students and parents for the Common Core — the more rigorous math and English standards taking effect next fall. LA Daily News 

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L.A. Unified leaders don’t make the grade
Commentary: The nation’s second-largest public school district is dealing with a few disciplinary problems of late, but it’s not the students I’m talking about.It’s the grown-ups. Members of the L.A. Unified administration think new school board President Richard Vladovic is a big bully, and in fact Vladovic has been under internal review for possible verbally abusive behavior. Supt. John Deasy had reportedly threatened to take his ball and leave the playground if Vladovic got the top job on the board but then changed his mind when it happened. LA Times

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LAUSD conflicts underscore challenges of ‘local control‘
Tensions are on the rise between top administrators and the new majority on the Los Angeles Unified School District school board – underscoring the perils inherent in Gov. Jerry Brown’s move to push more control and authority for what happens in schools down to the local level. Brown’s efforts are an attempt to reverse the top-down approach that has characterized California’s – and the nation’s – approach to school reform over the past decade – embodied both in the federal No Child Left Behind law and California’s Public School Accountability Act, and, more recently, the Common Core State Standards adopted by 45 states. EdSource 

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LAUSD releases $27m to settle claims in Miramonte sex abuse cases
The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Tuesday it has released more than $27 million to settle the dozens of claims of sexual abuse on behalf of students at Miramonte Elementary School. The claims stem from allegations of sexual abuse at the school by former third grade teacher Mark Berndt. The 61-year-old was arrested in January 2012 and criminally charged with molesting 23 students between the ages of 7 and 10-years-old over a five-year period at the school. CBS Los Angeles

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Academic Growth Over Time data show improvement at LAUSD schools
The Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday released its latest Academic Growth Over Time data, which found that 13 schools had performed “Far Above Predicted” in some categories for the last three years. The schools were: Aurora, Hoover, Morningside, Brooklyn Avenue, Gardena, Vermont elementary schools; and Berendo, Burbank, Edison, Palms, Pio Pico, Wilmington middle schools; and Bell High School. LA Daily News

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Why school lunch matters in state’s new education funding formula
Never has school lunch meant so much for California education. Delivering significantly more money to schools based on the number of low-income children they serve is at the heart of the sweeping new K-12 finance system approved by the state Legislature in June. The new system defines “low income” as those students eligible for the school’s free and reduced-price meals program. But two months into the rollout of the reforms, which Gov. Jerry Brown praised as a victory for the neediest students, two of the largest districts –- Los Angeles Unified and Fresno Unified –- are in a dispute with the state over a last-minute change in how children who receive free meals are counted. KQED

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Did this little election strike a big blow to education reform?

In the world of education reform, Paul Vallas is a superstar. As leader of school districts in Chicago and Philadelphia, he expanded charter schools and testing. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he replaced New Orleans’ ravaged public schools with a radical experiment in decentralized, charter-based learning. President Obama’s education secretary, Arne Duncan, has hailed him as an innovator. And yet a tiny, little-noticed municipal election in Connecticut last week may have been his undoing — and a major setback for the self-styled reform movement he champions, which increasingly faces tough political fights after years of ascendance nationally. The Atlantic