LA School Report

*UPDATED A petition is calling for the firing (again) of W. Keith Wyatt, An LA Unified lawyer who argued in court that a 14-year-old girl was partly responsible for her own sexual abuse at the hands of her teacher at Edison Middle School. After being told he would no longer be representing the district, he was...

By Lizette Alvarez MIAMI — When protests from parents and teachers erupted against the new Common Core tests here, Florida thought it had a solution: It dropped the tests. But it abruptly switched sources for the exams, hoping the substitute would be more palatable. Now, nearly six months after students finished taking their exams, Florida...

Obama administration announces new testing guidelines The Obama administration announced new guidelines toward standardized tests, saying kids spend too much time taking “unnecessary” exams in schools. CNN, by Laurie Ure and Kevin Liptak Families are choosing this L.A. school over privates and charters As L.A. Unified’s enrollment shrinks, with tens of thousands of students fleeing...

Were it to come to fruition, the Broad Foundation‘s recently announced plan to expand charter schools in LA Unified to include half of all district students would create a system that is unprecedented in size and scope across the United States. LA Unified already has more charter students than any in the nation. Whether expressing support or opposition to...

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced today that classrooms in Eagle Rock High School will be the first in the country to pilot the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) earthquake early warning system, ShakeAlert, a software application that will be installed on classroom computers at the school. The software reads data from 625 seismic sensors...

  * UPDATED A blue-ribbon panel of leading figures in education, politics and finance has been working behind the scenes to help LA Unified identify financial challenges and solutions as the district faces budget deficits in the near future. The panel includes people who have worked with the district in the past, and many have...

Everybody seems to have an idea about how the Los Angeles Unified school board should go about finding a new superintendent. Open up the interviews to the public, some say. Or at least make the identities of the finalists known, or their background and qualifications, so that people can weigh in with their opinions. Most...

Who might head LA Unified after Cortines? What type of person would the next superintendent be? And who would want a job that presents almost insurmountable challenges? Los Angeles Times, by Howard Blume DOE to schools: You must teach all students, regardless of legal status The Edu­ca­tion De­part­ment just is­sued a subtle re­mind­er to edu­cat­ors...

At 8:30 a.m. today in Granada Hills, a dozen parents met to offer input at one of the two dozen community meetings held for the LAUSD school superintendent search. This was the earliest and most northwest of all the community meetings planned in the large LA Unified district. It was held at the Valley Academy...

Considering the looming A-G graduation crisis, an option that appears to be gaining appeal among some district leaders is extending winter break to include time for a credit recovery session. The College and Career Readiness Plan, a year-long collaboration of administrators, teachers, parents, students and union leaders that was released this month, includes an endorsement of...