LA School Report

By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board The idea of equipping every Los Angeles Unified student and teacher with a computer suffered its final blow with the announcement last week that the school district simply couldn’t afford to buy some 700,000 of them. If ever a proposal was half-baked, it was the iPad project, which...

Commentary: NCLB and testing help hold schools accountable Even if the NCLB bathwater needs changing, our kids are not likely to learn more if schools and teachers are not held accountable. Los Angeles Times New online training aims to ferret out child abuse cases Public school employees can take their required annual training to spot...

If you thought LA Unified’s practice-run of the Smarter Balanced test last week would go smoothly, think again. But district officials insist the blame is not entirely the district’s fault. The state “Readiness Test” site, which was specifically designed for students to access the practice exam, crashed Thursday when state personnel tried logging into the system....

*UPDATED School board District 3 covers most of the western San Fernando valley from the Ventura county line to the 405 on its eastern boarder, with a cutout to include some of the tonier neighborhoods in the east valley. The district includes Chatsworth, parts of Woodland Hills, Northridge, Granda Hills, parts of Van Nuys and...

By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board When U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last year that the incessant focus on testing was “sucking the oxygen” out of public school classrooms, his statement seemed like a pointed criticism of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and of his own long-standing policies. For the last...

“Most of our early escalation tactics are about building solidarity among members, because a 35,000 member union can’t win a fight against the corporate education ‘reformers’ lined up against us with anything less than 35,000 members active in the fight.” That’s what it says on the UTLA website, which makes this a critical week for...

Sweeping change set for special education services A blue ribbon panel shared 44 specific recommendations aimed ultimately at improving academic outcomes for students with disabilities. SI&A Cabinet Report Critics say EPA played dual role in recycled tire controversy The EPA has terminated its longtime campaign to promote the use of recycled tires on artificial turf...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines had a stern warning today for the LA teachers union as well as for the district, itself: Not only are teachers not getting the salary increases they have been demanding in the now stalled contract negotiations, he said, but with a remaining budget deficit of $160 million, he has already...

A new state bill introduced by Assembly Member Sebastian Ridley-Thomas would allow classified school employees to apply for unemployment benefits over the summer. Assembly Bill 399 would impact a wide array of school employees, including bus drivers, special education assistants, cafeteria workers and other classified school workers who under current law are not allowed to apply...