LA School Report

Students at LA Unified will be among millions around the world participating next week in the Hour of Code event, designed to get kids interested in how to build computer codes. After an estimated 15 million students participated last year, the Hour of Code is aiming for 100 million students worldwide to participate during next week’s...

The LA Unified school board, gathering again tomorrow, will appear in open session long enough to hear the introduction of a largely symbolic measure, a resolution to support President Obama’s executive order on immigration. Then, the members will disappear into a closed meeting to review the usual subjects of closed meetings — personnel moves, litigation...

The California School Boards Association is not giving up the fight on Proposition 2, known as the Rainy Day Fund measure. It was passed by voters last month and sets aside bigger budget reserves while paying down more of the state’s debt. But critics say it harms school districts in the process by limiting how much they...

The national television program PBS NewsHour dedicated a segment on Friday to LA Unified’s disastrous MiSiS computer system and the problems it has caused for the district’s students and administrators, as well as asking what lessons other districts in the country might learn from the crisis. The segment features an interview with Los Angeles Times...

Via SI&A Cabinet Report | By Kimberly Beltran California charter schools operating out of privately-owned buildings may use the public tax dollars generated by a 2012 ballot measure to make energy-efficient upgrades to those facilities, state officials said late last week. Rules for dispersing the money from Proposition 39 – half of which is dedicated...

Stanford teams with teacher union CTA to train for Common Core Stanford University is joining with CTA to prepare schools for new learning goals that will change the way California students are taught and tested. Los Angeles Times Sam Walton’s granddaughter has plans to fix public education Carrie Walton Penner is arguably the most powerful...

Announcing the next phase of the digital device program to buy more iPads and Chromebooks was the easy part. Carrying it out is another issue. While LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines was pretty clear on how he expected it to proceed, others in the district are not so sure. The district’s Chief Facilities Director says...

A man known for aggressive and sometimes belligerent public comments at LA Unified school board meetings was arrested outside a board committee meeting at district headquarters on Oct. 28 and charged with three misdemeanor counts of making “annoying” phone calls to board member Tamar Galatzan months before. The man, George Buzzetti, 67, has been speaking...

Via The Los Angeles Times | By The Editorial Board The sexual abuse of students at Miramonte Elementary School was creepy beyond measure, involving a “game” in which third-graders were blindfolded and fed cookies tainted with their teacher’s semen. But the astonishing $139-million legal settlement — on top of an earlier $30 million settlement with...