LA School Report

Questions persist over troubled iPad deployment in LA schools With the huge purchase plan suspended, Superintendent John Deasy has alternated between assertions of his acceptance of the slowdown as a chance to regroup and denunciations of others who he said had politicized the process. Government Technology Universal preschool spending draws wide support in national poll...

The LA Unified School Board returns tomorrow with a full agenda although a lot of the juicy stuff will be discussed in closed session. In addition to the usual topics — personnel issues and ongoing litigation — the board will review labor negotiations, which at this point is down to the on-going talks with the...

Via EdWeek | by Carl Finer As a veteran urban educator and career union member, I care deeply about both my students and building the systems to ensure that all students and teachers have what they need to be successful. In the legal precedent laid out in the controversial Vergara decision relating to teacher tenure...

Principal Steven Martinez of John Burroughs Middle School in Hancock Park figured the worst that could happen is that his school’s new iPads wouldn’t connect to the Apple TVs that staff bought to enhance lesson plans. He figured wrong. On Friday, he learned that his school is not getting iPads at all. “I don’t understand what’s...

LAUSD teachers are paid less than others in California Records obtained by the Daily News show that those LA teachers averaged $2,148 — about 3 percent — less in pay than peers at a majority of California schools last year. LA Daily News Why don’t more men go into teaching? Analysis: Across the country, teaching...

Governor Jerry Brown and his Republican challenger, Neel Kashkari, spent a few testy minutes in their debate last night talking about public education. Their exchange largely focused on the recent decision by Brown, as a loser in Vergara vs. California, to appeal the ruling, which struck down laws protecting teacher employment rights. Brown was asked...

Ryan Smith, whose work as Director of Education Programs and Policy for United Way of Greater Los Angeles helped improve the educational prospects for students of color and those living in poverty, is leaving his post to become executive director of Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based non-profit focused on many of the same objectives. In his...

Lydia Gutierrez, a candidate for the LA Unified school board seat next year, says a former campaign manager misrepresented her positions in speaking to LA School Report earlier this week. Gutierrez disputed statements from Jose Gonzalez, who identified himself as one of her campaign managers, saying she would not vote to fire Superintendent John Deasy...

Activists win further regulation of LCFF money School administrators are still balking at attempts by lawmakers and other student advocacy groups to further tighten accountability restrictions under the state’s new school funding system. S&I Cabinet Report Superintendent Deasy explains Pearson, Apple meeting More than a week after new questions arose regarding the bidding process for...

After months of bargaining talks with LA Unified, the teachers union, UTLA, today submitted its first contract demand within the course of current negotiations. In a document submitted to the board this morning, the union called for discussions of various subjects, including salaries, teacher evaluations and discipline at its next bargaining sessions, according to a...