The Morning Read
Your Daily Roundup of LAUSD news from across the web | 10.05.21
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Los Angeles moves one step closer to a teachers strike
*Updated Oct. 12 with UTLA’s statement Los Angeles moved one step closer to a strike Friday when mediation efforts ended and LA Unified filed an unfair labor practice charge against United Teachers Los Angeles for refusing to participate in good faith. The two sides now move to a process called fact-finding. Each side has five...
By Laura Greanias | October 12, 2018
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English learners in California remain at the bottom of state test scores with only a hint of progress — and it’s even worse in Los Angeles
For California parents watching how well their public schools are doing at educating their children, the fall release of state test scores has brought only slim encouragement. Elementary school students, particularly in third and fourth grade, moved ahead, while 11th-graders lost ground. But the grimmest news was, once again, reserved for parents whose children are still...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | October 10, 2018
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Commentary: A teachers strike is bad for our students, families and economy
While a strike looms within our nation’s second-largest school district, the business community of Los Angeles urges the Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles to resolve their differences in a way that doesn’t put students at risk. As the organized, grassroots voice of the business community in Greater Los Angeles, BizFed works to...
By Hilary Norton and Tracy Hernandez | October 10, 2018
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LAUSD details 15% job cuts in central and local district offices to satisfy its financial overseers
LA Unified will eliminate $43 million in administrative salaries as part of an emergency cost-cutting plan to stave off its fiscal overseers. The cuts won’t be at school sites this year, but rather at the central and local district offices. The number of jobs that will be lost will be left up to each department,...
By Laura Greanias | October 9, 2018
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A Los Angeles-area teacher asked Twitter how to explain the Kavanaugh saga to students. Thousands — including fellow educators — responded
A teacher seeking advice on how to broach Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious U.S. Supreme Court confirmation with his students sparked thousands of responses from fellow educators and observers on Twitter this past week. Teacher Nick Ponticello had been searching for the best way to facilitate classroom discussion on what he considers a “big moment” in American...
By Taylor Swaak | October 9, 2018
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Antonucci: I was wrong about the LA teacher strike date; here’s why
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. If you lost your ranch, I apologize. Back on July 31, I predicted with confidence that United Teachers Los Angeles would strike in October — more specifically, the week of Oct. 8, this week. And while there are still a few days left in the week, and...
By Mike Antonucci | October 9, 2018
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California’s only gubernatorial debate mostly ignores education, even though a new poll finds parents of color place a high priority on improving the state’s public schools
Parents of color want California’s next governor to place a higher priority on improving public schools, a new poll finds. But as the two gubernatorial candidates held their first and perhaps only debate Monday, education barely came up. Republican businessman John Cox three times mentioned that the state’s schools are failing children, but there was...
By Laura Greanias | October 8, 2018
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Interview with former Sacramento schools chief, author of ‘Wildflowers: A School Superintendent’s Challenge to America,’ on educating the ‘whole child’
The present erosion of American democratic institutions has a range of ugly consequences — anxiety, distrust, polarization, etc. But most concretely, our current political catastrophe has produced heavy gridlock. Creative, productive policymaking is at an all-time low — including in education. The 2015 passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act ended the No Child Left Behind era...
By Conor Williams | October 8, 2018
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Thrive Schools: How an innovative California charter network grew to 700 students & 4 campuses in only 4 years through a focus on math, literacy & ‘the Light of Kindness’
At the Juanita Street campus of San Diego’s Thrive Public Schools, the day begins with a high-five and a warm greeting at the visitors’ gate. The charter elementary school currently occupies a handful of compact, semi-permanent buildings and a blacktop in a hilly stretch of the City Heights neighborhood. Its electronic gate is still pretty...
By Kevin Mahnken | October 3, 2018
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‘It was a shocker’: National student survey shows bullying on the rise over last three years, particularly among students of color in majority white schools
Something was wrong. This year, the nonprofit YouthTruth started noticing an upsetting trend. The organization, which works to improve school climate and culture by distributing anonymous student surveys in districts, was noticing an increase in bullying rates. Sonya Heisters, YouthTruth’s director of partnerships and outreach, observed it first in Quincy, Washington. The rural district, perched...
By Kate Stringer | October 2, 2018