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Don’t let fears stop necessary technology reform in L.A. schools
Commentary: The LA Unified School District has been lauded — and scrutinized — for its trailblazing efforts to reform teacher evaluation and include student achievement in hiring and firing decisions. But the $1 billion push to provide every student and teacher with an iPad may be attracting the most attention. LA Daily News
10 students injured in Watts after physics experiment goes awry
At least five students were hospitalized after a science experiment malfunctioned at a Watts charter high school on Tuesday. A physics teacher at Animo Watts College Preparatory Academy asked his students to estimate the speed of a marble that was being blown out of a wooden and PVC pipe cannon, according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Scott Miller. LA Times
Betting on a school
Ninety miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the San Bernardino Mountains, a school for Native American children peers down onto its main benefactor, a glittering, Las Vegas-style casino and hotel owned and operated by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. EdWeek
Education Dept. spells out five charter school priorities
The U.S. Education Department under Secretary Arne Duncan has for years been supportive of public charter schools, even requiring states that wanted Race to the Top money or federal waivers from No Child Left Behind to expand their numbers. Now the department is trying to figure out what requirements to attach to future federal grants for charter schools. Washington Post
San Jose charter school helps salvage lives
After they veer off course, many of California’s hundreds of thousands of dropouts end up unemployed, on the streets, in jail and worse. For those young people who are lucky and determined enough, the San Jose Conservation Corps Charter School has helped them get back on track. San Jose Mercury
These days, school lunch hours are more like 15 minutes
It’s lunchtime at Oakland High School in Oakland, Calif., and that means fence hoppers. Several kids wear mischievous grins as they speedily scale a 12-foot-high metal perimeter. In theory, anyway, Oakland High is a “closed campus.” It means kids can’t leave during school hours without parental consent, especially at lunchtime. NPR
Wall Street is designing future of public education as a money-making
Given that Arthur Rock has a net worth of $1 billion, lives in California and spends his time heaping money on tech startups (with the mantra, “Get in, get out,” as his guide), a local school board race in Atlanta, Ga. seems an unlikely candidate for his attention. Salon