LA School Report

The latest annual report from a court-appointed monitor of LA Unified’s special education programs had praise for much of the district’s progress over the last year integrating its disabled students into general education classes. It also gave high marks for Superintendent Ramon Cortines‘ efforts to stabilize the troubled $133 million MiSiS computer system. However, the report...

The LA Unified’s Office of Inspector General told a school board committee this week that it needs an additional $570,000 to audit charter schools, according to a recent report. The OIG once had a staff of 83 and is now down to 57, according to Inspector General Ken Bramlett, whose office oversees a $7.6 million budget....

In what would appear to be a strategic shift, the organization leading an effort to open more charter schools in LA Unified now intends to expand its mission to support traditional public schools that serve low-income children. The organization, incorporated as Great Public Schools Now, is an outgrowth of a plan by the Broad and...

By Kerry Cavanaugh I am the parent of a Los Angeles Unified School District student, and I get robocalls from the district probably two times a week. These are not calls from my son’s elementary school. These are recorded messages from various district officials, informing me of some meeting or workshop or that parents should fill out some...

A growing split among parents over unionization efforts at Alliance charters  The fight to unionize the largest provider of charter schools in Los Angeles is beginning to divide parents. Los Angeles Times, by Joy Resmovits Prop. 98 guarantee could reach $80B by 2020 The minimum funding guarantee for K-12 schools and community colleges is expected...

Seven years after city voters approved Measure Q, giving LA Unified the go-ahead to borrow $7 billion, the first bond sales from the measure will begin within a month or so, district officials said today. As the largest local school bond measure in California history, Measure Q was requested to upgrade older school buildings and reconfigure...

As the FBI agent played a video of a 16-year-old caught in a sex ring in Los Angeles, the audience of the Successful School Climate: Progressive Discipline and Safety Committee yesterday remained hushed. Some wiped tears from their eyes. LAUSD Chief Deputy Superintendent Michelle King reviewed the list of local schools where such crimes occurred and she...

*UPDATED LA Unified announced today that Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Ruth Perez is leaving the district and will be replaced by Frances Gipson, the current Local District East superintendent who will serve as chief academic officer. Perez, a former superintendent of the Norwalk-La Mirada school district, had been in her position since August of 2014 after she was hired by former...

By Eric Patnoudes As the parent of four kids, I had the pleasure of listening to Fredi Lajvardi give a keynote at CETPA’s annual conference last year, and it was the sort of talk that sends shivers down educators’ spines and gives them goose bumps.  It was an hour of awe-inspiring pure education magic — the type of story...

Nonprofit is formed to advance charter-school plan in Los Angeles area Backers of a plan to greatly expand successful charters and other high-quality public schools in the LA area have formed a nonprofit organization. Los Angeles Times, by Howard Blume Low-income students ask educators to believe they can succeed A statewide coalition of students from...