LA School Report

With Vergara v California at the halfway point, and court in recess until next week, it’s a good time to see where things stand and where they might be going, if they’re going anywhere at all. The trial has enormous consequences for the state, and maybe beyond, calling into account five California laws that govern...

New funding law puts focus on translation for non-English speakers School districts with high concentrations of English-learner students are facing a new challenge in ensuring that parents who need language translation are informed of their role under the funding formula for schools. California’s new Local Control Funding Formula emphasizes the importance of parental involvement in...

Home of the National Academic Decathlon champions for 8 of the last 10 years, LAUSD is no stranger to success in the annual academic competition for high school students. And neither is this year’s district winner, John Marshall High School. The Los Feliz school will represent LAUSD at the state level in March alongside a...

Former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has thrown himself into the District 1 special election race by endorsing Genethia Hudley-Hayes, one of 13 candidates running to join the LA Unified School Board. Hudley-Hayes, who served as school board president until she lost her seat to the late Marguerite LaMotte in 2003, released a list of endorsers this...

Via the Washington Post | By Sarah Blaine Commentary: We all know what teachers do, right? After all, we were all students. Each one of us, each product of public education, we each sat through class after class for thirteen years. We encountered dozens of teachers. We had our kindergarten teachers and our first grade...

Many L.A. Unified school libraries, lacking staff, are forced to shut In the sun-filled space at the Roy Romer Middle School library, thousands of books invite students to stimulate their curiosity and let their imaginations soar. There is classic “Tom Sawyer” and popular “Harry Potter,” biographies of Warren Buffett and Tony Blair, illustrated books on...

With ballots going in the mail next week, Los Angeles area teachers will start a long, internal election process that could have a big impact on the future of the teachers union (UTLA), one of the most powerful in the country. The competition for the top job of UTLA president, which pays north of $100,000...

The third UTLA presidential forum held at union headquarters last night was the most well attended — about 70 members made it for the two hour question and answer session — and it also proved to be the most contentious and mud-slingingest. For any given question, only a handful of the 10 candidates managed to...

Via the Los Angeles Times | By Chris Megerian WEST SACRAMENTO — When the glass-sheathed headquarters of the California teachers’ pension fund opened five years ago, it was supposed to help anchor developments along the blighted riverfront on the capital’s outskirts. But as Jack Ehnes, the fund’s chief executive, looked out from a top-floor conference...

California senator proposes restoring bilingual education Sixteen years after California voters approved an initiative requiring public school instruction in English, state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) introduced a measure Thursday to repeal the requirement of Proposition 227. Lara’s proposal would place an initiative on the ballot that would give parents a choice to have their...