LA School Report

This is the next in a series of profiles on candidates running in the March 3 primary for the LA Unified school board. Today’s focus is Elizabeth Badger, a candidate for the District 3 seat.   For Elizabeth Badger the race for LA Unified’s School Board District 3 seat is personal. “I’m angry and fed...

 Via The Hechinger Report | By Nichole Dobo As more schools move to incorporate technology into classrooms, local leaders often face tough questions about how to make it effective. Over the next six months, national experts will hop-scotch to a dozen cities to collaborate with school leaders in workshops on those questions. If all goes as...

How long have they been at it now, four, five six months? Whatever it is, negotiators for LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, appear as close to agreement on a new labor contract as they were when bargaining began. Maybe they are inching forward on some issues. But the fact remains, teachers are still...

LAUSD attendance drop could mean loss of $100 million For every 3 percent drop in average daily attendance, the district can expect to lose roughly $100 million in state funding. Los Angeles Daily News Soaring tax collections could trigger budget caps in 2015-16 Higher-than-expected state revenues could in 2015-16 trigger a series of new legal...

A $1.3 billion project fraught with controversy and a long list of disappointing results produced its first positive news in some time yesterday, as LA Unified reported a high level of success and satisfaction at a handful of schools where students were allowed to take home their district-issued iPads and other digital tablets. Members of...

More than 17,000 District 1 voters put George McKenna on the LA Unified school board last year. Now he needs each of them to send him $2.06. While candidates for this year’s school board elections are busy raising money, McKenna, is looking for help in paying off nearly $35,000 in campaign debts from last year. In...

The LA Unified teachers union, UTLA, dropped its salary demand yesterday to an 8.5 percent increase from a 9 percent, the union’s third consecutive lowering of what many teachers consider the most important issue in negotiations for a new contract. As part of the change, UTLA negotiators also asked the district for an annual $1,000...

Fewer California parents refuse to vaccinate children The number of California parents who refuse to vaccinate their kindergartners dropped in 2014 for the first time in a dozen years. Los Angeles Times Legislative leaders want to debate school bond Gov. Jerry Brown has made it clear he doesn’t like the idea of issuing another statewide...

How safe is your child’s sports field? KCET recently took an in-depth look at “crumb rubber” synthetic fields and the recent reports of possible health hazards related to them. The segment, which features interviews with parents, city officials, an LA Unified official and experts, focuses on parks in Los Angeles and at LA Unified that have crumb rubber...

Students from 18 LA Unified schools will be taking part in the third-annual Aspen Challenge on Saturday at the César E. Chávez Learning Academies in San Fernando. Launched by the Aspen Institute and the Bezos Family Foundation,the Aspen Challenge provides a forum for high school students and teachers to take on some of the world’s most pressing...