LA School Report

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Somehow I missed last month’s report from the California State Auditor on one of former Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature education policy accomplishments: the Local Control Funding Formula. The formula simplified the way the state funded K-12 education in local school districts, giving every district a...

This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. Letting her students guide their own instruction and learning from each other has been one of the keys to success for...

Since 2010 the nation’s teacher preparation programs have seen their enrollment drop by more than a third even as more students are pursuing bachelor’s degrees. At the same time, graduates of these programs declined by almost 30 percent. The dwindling popularity of teaching as a profession means that 340,000 fewer students entered teacher preparation programs...

When it comes to democracy, there’s theory and then there’s reality. UTLA endorsed Bernie Sanders with great fanfare, soaring rhetoric, and widespread media attention last month, but they skimped on one key ingredient: a completely democratic process. It is crucial for UTLA to engage its membership fully when forming their policy priorities and positions. Yet,...

Who should own education data? If you ask the Data Quality Campaign’s Brennan McMahon Parton, it’s the community — students and their families have the right to know how their schools are doing for all students, she says. But some states are making that pretty difficult. That’s why her organization partnered with two other parent...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report With 310,000 members, more than 400 employees and $200 million in annual revenue, the California Teachers Association is a large-scale enterprise. It wields great influence at the statehouse, but its presence is felt in the smallest communities throughout the state. Nothing happens in education or...

This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. For a history teacher like Paulina Morales, there has not been a better time than now to engage students in learning...

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is on the map. There is solid evidence that SEL matters a great deal for important life outcomes including success in school, college entry and completion, and later earnings. We also know that SEL can be taught and nurtured in schools, resulting in significant impacts such as improvements in classroom...

Few things are more important to educators than our students’ growth. We track their progress and proficiency, we listen to their concerns, we identify obstacles that stand in their way, and we do everything possible to help them overcome those obstacles. So when officials at the California State University system announce they’re considering increasing the...

This story originally appeared in The Chronicle of Social Change In the eastern suburbs of Sacramento County, Kamika Hebbert keeps a watchful eye for signs of how an unstable environment affects young minds. There’s the restlessness that comes with worry about biological parents and siblings. The thousand-mile stare that comes with trauma. The mouthing off...