LA School Report

The defense rested its case today in Vergara v. California after an examination of an LA Unified administrator that was designed to show that the state laws under challenge did not impede the district’s effort to get rid of ineffective teachers. On Monday, court resumes with the plaintiffs’ opening a short rebuttal phase of the trial,...

All that criticism of Warren Fletcher as a weak UTLA president and of Alex Caputo-Pearl as a campaign rules scofflaw apparently didn’t make much difference. They emerged as the top two vote-getters for the president of United Teacher Los Angeles in the first round of voting in the union’s 2014 election campaign and are now headed...

Public denied access to LA school officials’ iPad software demonstration Members of the L.A. Unified school board and a committee investigating the iPad project were given the first demonstration of the tablet’s educational software Wednesday evening – but the public wasn’t invited and a KPCC reporter was not allowed in the room. KPCC California public...

The defense in Vergara v California called its final witness to the stand today, a nationally-recognized expert on education policy, who provided testimony that heavily supported all the state laws under challenge in the case. Throughout the day, Linda Darling-Hammond, who teaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, said unequivocally that the California laws...

The board of directors of the Los Angeles teachers union, UTLA, voted last night to recommend that the union endorse three teachers for the vacant District 1 board seat. The special election is June 3. In recommending Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Rachel Johnson and Hattie McFrazier, a retired teacher, the board chose to withhold endorsing the fourth teacher in...

A new report from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes, comparing the rate of learning in California charter schools against district peer schools, finds mixed results that are not nearly as impressive as the gains found in Los Angeles schools, the subject of a CREDO report released last week. In the latest survey,...

Delays would mean bigger costs for shoring up teacher pension fund The longer California’s leaders delay shoring up the cash-strapped teacher pension fund, the more money it will cost taxpayers in the long run, according to an analysis presented to lawmakers on Wednesday. If lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown eliminate the fund’s $71-billion shortfall over the...

An expert on the the role that teachers play in academic performance today became the latest defense witness in Vergara v California to testify that students in high-poverty area schools face higher challenges to learning. Ken Futernick, Director of the WestEd School Turnaround Center, a research organization, and a former professor of education at California...

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came to Los Angeles today to shine a light on a White House initiative that takes a holistic approach to helping kids learn. Duncan joined LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy and a group of teachers, students and leaders of the Youth Policy Institute at a community center in Hollywood. The...

LA County is set to vote on whether it should heed a decision of the LA Unified School Board to shut down two highly successful charter schools in the district: Aspire Antonio Maria Lugo Academy (AALA). and Aspire Ollin University Preparatory Academy. The L.A. County Office of Education met yesterday to hear the schools’ appeals...