LA School Report

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, a 2013 case with huge implications for unions’ nationwide in their ability to collect dues, the Los Angeles teachers union, UTLA, is gearing up for whatever the justices decide. A victory by the plaintiffs would reverse a decades-old precedent, Abood...

LA Unified’s new board president, Steve Zimmer, had a recent chat with Politico, and some of his comments reached its Education Morning Edition today. Nothing surprising until the final paragraph, when he expresses his hope that the selection of a new superintendent to replace the soon-to-be-leaving Ramon Cortines doesn’t “devolve into another ground war over schooling,...

By Corey Turner If this isn’t an honest-to-goodness crystal ball, it’s close. Neurobiologist Nina Kraus believes she and her team at Northwestern University have found a way — a half-hour test — to predict kids’ literacy skill long before they’re old enough to begin reading. When I first read the study in the journal PLOS Biology, two words...

Long Beach board under pressure to rename Robert E. Lee Elementary Dozens of schools throughout the nation bear the name of Lee, who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. NY Daily News Why NYC is experimenting with new ways to desegregate public schools Advocates of school integration say the tide is...

LA Unified students and teachers this week are helping educate scientists and instructors from 34 countries, with a focus on how they are handling California’s water crisis. The GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a federal effort aimed at expanding the understanding of global environment to a worldwide audience. As...

There’s a little good news/bad news in a new report analyzing the college-readiness of low-income students who took the ACT test. More low-income students than ever took the test in 2014, according to the report, and a high level of them expressed a plan to attend college. But the bad news: performance by low-income students...

The staff that investigates allegations against residents of LA Unified’s “teacher jail” has doubled since the team started last year, with the aim of clearing cases faster. The Student Safety Investigation Team (SSIT) now has 15 members, including six full-time investigators, four LA school police, two forensic specialists and one supervising investigator. The team is...

By Nicholas Fandos This is not your typical summer sleepaway camp. Bonfires and archery? Try Insecure Direct Object References and A1-Injections. The dozen or so teenagers staring at computers in a Marymount University classroom here on a recent day were learning — thanks to a new National Security Agency cybersecurity program that reaches down into the ranks...

Voter in L.A. school board race wins $25,000 for casting a ballot An experiment in boosting chronic low-turnout local elections ended Friday when Rojas, a 35-year-old security guard, received a check. Los Angeles Times Commentary: LAUSD still persecuting one of the nation’s best teachers Esquith is being treated like a Wall Street cheat. Washington Post...

Despite persistent concerns about teachers sexually harassing or abusing students in the classroom, only slightly more than a third of the teachers and other school personnel currently in LA Unified’s so-called “teacher jail” have been accused of sexual misconduct, according to the district’s latest accounting. Almost the same number are facing accusations of “violence.” As of...