LA School Report

*UPDATED More than three dozen teachers at some of LA Unified’s lower-performing schools say their contracts are not being renewed because of a loophole in settlement of Reed vs. California, a lawsuit that tried to curb high teacher turnover in some of the city’s most challenging schools. The settlement, made in April 2014, was aimed...

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson came to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce today to announce his latest action plan for California’s education system. The five-year plan is a continuation of his 2011 effort, called A Blueprint for Great Schools, which has been updated and rebranded as A Blueprint for Great Schools Version 2.0. The...

Editor’s note: In the LA Times yesterday, Diane Ravitch argued passionately that the future of public education in Los Angeles depends on whom the LA Unified board selects as its next superintendent. She wrote, “The ideal superintendent would have the courage, and the support of the board, to resist those who seek to undermine and...

By Clifton D. Parker California’s tough new vaccination law is legally sound and will serve as a model for how to keep children healthy, Stanford professors say. On June 25, California Gov. Jerry Brown approved a new state law (SB277) that substantially narrows exceptions to school-entry vaccination mandates. In doing so, California becomes the third...

Carl Schafer works to get CA to enforce its own arts education law Carl Schafer has spent the last three years lobbying to get arts instruction to every student in the state. KPCC Finally some help from the feds on ELL with disabilities The special education system in many schools is plagued by over- or...

The Math, Science & Technology Magnet Academy at Theodore Roosevelt High School became the first school in the state to win national recognition for leveraging technology. It is also the first time that a school with a predominantly Latino student body received the honor from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), according to Eastern...

LA Unified’s efforts at reforming its school discipline policies were applauded at a White House national conference yesterday attended by school administrators from around the country. The day-long “Rethink Discipline” conference held up LA Unified as one of five districts that has seen positive results by moving away from “zero tolerance” disciplinary rules. LA Unified board...

For anyone bemoaning current trends in state public education, hold your complaints, at least until tomorrow. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has scheduled an event downtown at the LA Area Chamber of Commerce to unveil “a new action plan,” that his office says will provide “the steps to take in the next four years...

By Lenore Skenazy Back in 2009, the parenting site Babble listed the top 50 “mom” blogs in America—funniest, most fashionable, etc., and “most controversial.” That would be my blog, Free-Range Kids. Then it was voted most controversial again, a year later. What crazy idea was I pushing? Don’t vaccinate your kids? Clobber them when they cry?...

State’s top education official plans new accountability system to rate schools Torlakson said he will announce the creation of a committee to formulate a new accountability system for evaluating and rating schools. Los Angeles Daily News Commentary: What LAUSD needs in its next superintendent The Los Angeles Unified School District has at most a year...