LA School Report

With all the uncertainty about how the LA Unified school board intends to evaluate Superintendent John Deasy in his next annual performance review, two new voices have entered the debate, urging the board to act with transparency, put student interests first and keep Deasy where he is. In separate letters to the board today, both...

With the signing of AB 420, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday made California the first state in the nation to limit suspensions and expulsions for the reason of “willful defiance,” a term critics call a catch-all phrase that can be hard to define but includes such categories as talking back, refusing assignments or violating the...

As the LA Unified school board prepares to meet privately tomorrow to discuss how to evaluate Superintendent John Deasy in his performance review next month, it might be instructive to have a look at the board’s previous evaluations of him to understand what criteria they used. Except for one thing: They don’t exist. None of...

Via LA Times | by Jim Newton There’s a storm cloud gathering over Los Angeles politics these days, and the man at its center is schools Supt. John Deasy. In office since 2010, Deasy has fenced with his bosses, the seven-member school board, almost from the get-go. Lately, however, the situation has deteriorated: United Teachers Los...

L.A. County education officials seek to revoke group’s charter The Los Angeles County Board of Education has notified a South LA charter school organization that it intends to revoke its charter after a state audit found that administrators funneled millions in state funds to the schools’ founder and former director. LA Times Schools challenged by...

Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews took an in-depth look at Los Angeles County this month when he applied his Challenge Index rankings and came up with a list of the top 75 private and public schools. The results may surprise some, as Mathews noted that only six schools on the list are private, and...

Uncertainties surround LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy. He doesn’t see eye-to-eye with board members on a host of issues. Questions are swirling about whether he’ll quit or be fired. That was last year. But here he is again, weeks away from his next performance review, and not much has changed. This time, Deasy finds himself...

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...