The Morning Read
Your Daily Roundup of LAUSD news from across the web | 10.05.21
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Antonucci: California Teachers Association seeks 80 percent member turnout in November
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. With large membership losses on the horizon, the California Teachers Association will take advantage of its current strength and devote considerable resources to state and local political campaigns this fall. The 325,000-member teachers union is spending the summer devising strategy to help elect Gavin Newsom as governor...
By Mike Antonucci | July 24, 2018
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Ref Rodriguez resigns: 3 things to know about the Los Angeles Unified school board member’s departure
It’s official: Los Angeles Unified’s Ref Rodriguez is out. Early Monday, the embattled school board member pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy and four misdemeanor counts for making campaign contributions in another person’s name. As part of a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to immediately resign from office. Rodriguez won’t serve any jail...
By Mario Koran | July 23, 2018
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Vice president of LA’s school board says teachers contract may require revisions after report shows half of instructors at city’s lowest-performing schools aren’t being regularly evaluated
New data show that almost half the teachers at LA Unified’s lowest-performing schools have not been evaluated for at least three years, and nearly all of those who were had received favorable ratings. Now the school board’s vice president is calling for more regular evaluations, which he said could require negotiating changes to the city’s...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | July 23, 2018
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Only one fourth-grader at a school in California can read at grade level; now a lawsuit claiming the state is violating students’ ‘constitutional right to literacy’ is moving to trial
*Updated July 23 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos ruled on Monday denying the petition of the State of California and allowing the lawsuit on behalf of the 10 students to proceed. Morrison & Foerster partner Michael Jacobs, who is leading the firm’s pro bono team on the case, said, “We are pleased that the court is allowing us to proceed...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | July 18, 2018
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LA parent voice: ‘It’s time that schools really support LGBTQ students’
Each week, we sit down with Los Angeles parents to talk about their students, their schools, and what questions or suggestions they have for their school district. (See our previous interviews.) “When my son was only 13 years old, he wanted to end his life because he’s gay and was being bullied in school.” Candelaria Medina says...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | July 18, 2018
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Senate confirms Los Angeles reform advocate Jim Blew in narrow vote, rounding out Ed Dept’s K-12 team
The Senate voted narrowly Tuesday to confirm Jim Blew, a longtime education reform advocate, to be an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, rounding out the department’s K-12 team. Senators voted 50-49 along party lines to confirm Blew as assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development some 10 months after he was...
By Carolyn Phenicie | July 17, 2018
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Analysis: UTLA attempts to move American Federation of Teachers to the left
Last week we highlighted how the California Teachers Association and its largest local affiliate, United Teachers Los Angeles, wield a disproportionate amount of power over the policies of their parent union, the National Education Association. UTLA is also affiliated with the smaller of the two national teacher unions, the American Federation of Teachers. AFT just...
By Mike Antonucci | July 17, 2018
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Los Angeles education advocate Jim Blew is confirmed as assistant secretary in U.S. Dept. of Education
Los Angeles’s Jim Blew was confirmed Tuesday by the U.S. Senate as the Department of Education’s assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development. The vote was 50-49. He was nominated last September. Blew, who was educated in LA Unified schools, has been serving as the acting secretary of the department’s office of innovation and improvement....
By Laura Greanias | July 17, 2018
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Anxiety looms for thousands of migrant teachers as Trump administration pushes ‘zero tolerance’ enforcement of visa program
Pedro Terán knew what he was getting into. Terán, 33, was living in Saltillo, Mexico, two years ago when his sister posted an ad on Facebook that said the Dallas Independent School District was looking for teachers. The district had sent recruiters to Monterrey, about an hour from Terán’s home, to find educators to help...
By Mario Koran | July 16, 2018
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How a Los Angeles school board member teamed up with SpaceX & Elon Musk to test a mini-sub for the Thailand soccer team’s rescue
Updated July 12 Water levels were rising dangerously high and time was running out to rescue a team of soccer boys and their coach who had been trapped for two weeks in a Thailand cave. Thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, Elon Musk, the famed founder of the SpaceX rocket company, and his crew...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | July 12, 2018