LA School Report

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today announced that 227 school sites, including 33 in LA Unified, will share nearly $27 million in Broadband Infrastructure Improvement Grants (BIIG) to help school districts increase their ability to administer the state’s new online tests this spring. “These state grants provide the critical last step needed to...

The California Arts Council is partnering with the Department of Water Resources in a student poster contest meant to raise awareness about water conservation. Students around the state in the 4th and 5th grade are invited to create posters for the Conservation Creativity Challenge that illustrate fun and unique ways to conserve water as the...

Mayor Eric Garcetti today helped kick off a fund raising campaign for Proyecto Pastoral and Promesa Boyle Heights which will focus efforts on expanding opportunity for youth in our communities. Both groups are non-profits that work to transform the East LA neighborhood by improving targeted schools and expanding social services in the community around them. The...

With an umambiguous victory in the Vergara lawsuit last year, the advocacy group that supported it financially, Students Matter, has developed a blueprint for the new legislature in Sacramento to rewrite the laws struck down by the trial court. Never mind that the case is on appeal by the defendants — the state and its...

Via Los Angeles Times | By Howard Blume  As a three-term Colorado governor, Roy Romer, a Democrat, had to deal with a combative Republican majority in his state Legislature. He later headed his party’s fractious national committee. But nothing was as difficult, he said, as running the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Educating kids in...

School testing gets a bit of state support It may not be much, but school districts will be reimbursed some $12.3 million to help offset costs associated with administering the state’s new Common Core tests. SI&A Cabinet Report New York’s school schedule wastes billions of dollars: Report School schedules contribute to an achievement gap between...

The California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) asked students, parents, teachers, leaders and supporters last year to share videos about their charter schools as part of a contest for thousands of dollars in cash prizes. With the deadline now passed, the CCSA has received 47 submissions and is asking the public to view the videos and...

A new state senate bill would ban the installation of any new school athletic fields or playgrounds that contain “crumb rubber” synthetic material until a full study is done on the substance. After lead was discovered at some LA Unified preschool playgrounds, the district stopped building new crumb rubber fields in 2009 and removed the...

LA Unified’s recent order for new testing devices ensures that district students will have all the technical equipment they need to take the state mandated exam later this year. Whether the Smarter Balanced test results will be used for anything is a separate issue. While intense public scrutiny over the deal between the district and...

Brown’s budget would add billions to K-12 funding Gov. Jerry Brown, in his inaugural speech, announced public schools will receive $65.7 billion next year. SI&A Cabinet Report Inglewood High School vandalized with swastikas over holiday break Students returned Monday to an Inglewood high school to find graffiti on campus and classrooms vandalized. CBS Los Angeles...