LA School Report

L.A. Unified officials announced today a plan to offer computer science curriculum to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade as part of a partnership with Seattle-based nonprofit Code.org. The program will offer the instruction to all students and will expand upon the district’s earlier collaboration with UCLA to give more students access to computer science education,...

Beyond the billions of dollars from construction bonds they spend after rigorous public debate, LA Unified school board members also have access to millions of additional dollars that they can spend without debate through a little-known program known as “board member priority projects.” By rules in place since 2002, members have the discretion to spend...

It’s an old story in LA Unified: Two schools are put together in one campus under the state co-location policy. The merger is always complicated and messier still when it’s a last-minute arranged marriage and neither side is consulted ahead of time about the partnership. It sometimes explodes into smithereens, as it did last year...

What’s wrong with the Vergara ruling Commentary: What’s wrong with the ruling is that it reinforces a completely false narrative in which incompetent teachers are portrayed as the central problem facing urban schools.EdSource Online resource offers help with discipline Educators who want to implement more positive disciplinary practices can now access an online national repository...

Art is returning to LA Unified — in one project, anyway. The J. Paul Getty Museum has selected Barbara Kruger for the 2014 Getty Artists Program, a collaboration this year with two schools to encourage students to develop a project of their choosing. Kruger, whose work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American...

Could there be a hint of progress in negotiations between LA Unified and the teachers’ union, UTLA? Negotiators for the district say they were encouraged by the union’s latest — and most comprehensive — contract proposal, which was submitted last week. Vivan Ekchian, the district’s chief labor negotiator, told LA School Report, “I considered it...

California, other states to set test cutoff scores During the next few weeks California educators will play a pivotal role in a crucial phase of work for the new Smarter Balanced assessments that millions of California students will take this spring for the first time. EdSource Why can’t the grown-ups get it right on education?...

With record October heat striking the Los Angeles area, LA Unified today cancelled all outdoor daytime athletic activities in the San Fernando Valley, NBC reported. Varsity football games scheduled for after 7 p.m. will continue. Because of triple digit heat, Santa Ana winds and fire danger expected through the weekend, heat advisories and red flag warnings...

* UPDATED In a move supported by LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy, several civil rights organizations asked a judge yesterday to order the state to address the scheduling mess plaguing Jefferson High School, where computer glitches have caused many students to go for two months without the correct classes. Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the teachers...