LA School Report

Study: Billions of dollars in annual teacher training is largely a waste The study found no evidence that any particular approach or amount of professional development consistently helps teachers improve. Washington Post Good news for New Orleans The city has provided the first direct test of an alternative to the system that has dominated American...

The headline on the press release yesterday From Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky and 2016 presidential hopeful, screams for attention: “Sen. Rand Paul Highlights LAUSD Reallocating Funds from National School Lunch Program to Feed Lawns, Not Children.” The message got the attention of The Hill, a DC paper that covers Congress, which went with “Paul:...

When LA Unified and its teachers union agreed to new three-year deals on a contract and health benefits this spring, one strike was averted. But another may be on the horizon. UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl took the stage over the weekend at the union’s annual leadership conference and made another strike threat in his State of the Union...

As the school year kicks off this month, 28 LAUSD schools will get free psychological services on site, thanks to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “Unfortunately, violence and trauma is a regular thing in the lives of children in some parts of Los Angeles, and teachers are just not trained to handle that — they should be...

By Jill Stewart By all rights, 96th Street Elementary School in Watts shouldn’t be busy on a summer morning. School doesn’t start until Aug. 18, and the front door is hemmed in by construction fencing to boot. But parents keep popping by the plain brick complex under the roaring flight path of LAX. One mother...

LAUSD plan cuts arts instruction to nine weeks per subject The program, known as the Creative Network Pilot, launched last year in 31 schools and will expand this fall to an additional 10 schools. KPCC Is studying the arts in school important? This twelve-minute film explores the stories of artists, educators, parents, administrators, politicians and...

David Binkle, the embattled food services director for LA Unifed, has resigned from the job he held through last December before he was removed under a cloud of controversy. Binkle had become a celebrity in the food world the last few years after appearing on talk shows and receiving praise from First Lady Michele Obama for...

In what organizers call the state’s largest teacher training ever attempted, more than 20,000 educators gathered for the California Teachers Summit at 33 sites across the state on Friday. “It’s so exciting to bring teachers teaching teachers in this unprecedented collaboration,” said Ellen Moir, of the nonprofit New Teacher Center who helped organize the Better Together campaign. Among...

LA Unified’s chief lobbyist, Edgar Zazueta, told the school board last week that the House of Representatives version of the revised No Child Left Behind bill could cost the district $78.7 million in Title I money for low income schools, which translates to 22.9 percent of its funding. The board has voted to protest the House...

LAUSD School board president Steve Zimmer has given the board’s two newest members committee chairmanships. Ref Rodriguez will be taking over the Early Childhood Education and Parent Engagement Committee, which was previously run by Bennett Kayser, whom Rodriguez defeated in the June runoff. Zimmer named the other new board member, Scott Schmerelson, chairman of the Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee....