LA School Report

LA Unified’s Beyond the Bell program received some national recognition last week when it was honored with the prestigious Hoyt S. Vandenberg Award from the Air Force Association. The program was the first educational institution to receive the award, which for 66 years has recognized achievements by individuals or institutions in the U.S. Air Force,...

L.A. Unified oversight panel rejects $42 million for computers The Los Angeles school district’s bond oversight panel rejected a move Thursday by officials to spend an additional $42 million on new computers. LA Times Crenshaw principal says teachers’ dismissals not tied to union activity The principal of Crenshaw High School testified in a hearing Thursday...

A new report from Child Trends took a close look at Hispanic children in America and found a “complex picture.” The 35-page report examined all facets of the lives of Hispanic children, including education, and said some of its findings are “familiar while others are less well-known.” Overall, while Hispanic students have made significant gains over...

LA Unified has won a $13 million federal grant intended to expose low-income students to college. The grant will span over seven years and benefit 2,000 students currently in the sixth- and seventh-grades, according to City News Service. The schools involved in the grant are Berendo Middle School, the Helen Bernstein Complex, Le Conte Middle...

The LA Unified school board’s sudden decision to hold a closed door session next week grew out of a Sept. 17 email request from Monica Ratliff to Board President Richard Vladovic, in which she expressed her desire to “discuss the current personell (sic) matter.” The reference was to Superintendent John Deasy, whose performance evaluation is...

Getting safely to and from school can be tricky in a rough neighborhood. To make it easier, City Attorney Mike Feuer launched a pilot program earlier this month at four LA Unified elementary schools, aimed at keeping kids safe. The Neighborhood School Safety Program targets schools in areas with high “quality of life” crimes, including...

As part of a plan to increase pressure on LA Unified as it negotiates for a new contract, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is planning monthly “actions” to take place on campuses around the district. In preparation for the actions, which are to begin in October, UTLA is dubbing Tuesday, Sept. 30 as “Big Red Tuesday,”...

Volunteers can help frame Common Core tests Teachers and others from California have until Friday to sign up for a crowd-sourcing exercise that will help determine how questions will be scored on the new Common Core tests students will take next spring. Edsource L.A. school board to meet Tuesday; likely to discuss Deasy’s future The...

The LA Unified school board has scheduled a last-minute closed-door meeting next week to discuss its top employee, superintendent John Deasy. Sources tell LA School Report that the meeting was called to give the seven school board members a chance to discuss what criteria they would like to include in the superintendent’s upcoming annual performance...

A new study confirms conventional thinking, that an online literacy gap is emerging among students in America, with lower-income students lagging behind their more affluent peers in the ability to navigate the Internet and use it to enhance their studies. According to the New York Times, the study, led by Donald J. Leu at the...