LA School Report

After the first week of the groundbreaking trial Vergara vs. California in a California superior court, lawyers and witnesses talked a lot about ineffective teachers, arcane rules for dismissing them and how much money it costs. One thing they didn’t talk about was Beatriz Vergara. The lawsuit in her name — she’s an LA Unified...

The Los Angeles teachers union election process is long – from February to July – and a lot like a reality show, with multiple voting rounds to knock out candidates/contestants, until finally, there’s only one person left standing. That’s especially true in the race for UTLA president, which has 10 men competing for the chance...

LA schools to get 45K more iPads for spring tests Officials at the Los Angeles Unified School District put in order with Apple Thursday to buy 45,000 new devices for student standardized testing in the spring. After weeks of negotiation, the price dropped by more than $200 from earlier rounds to $504 per device –...

Legal battles aren’t only waged in the courtroom; they’re also hard fought in the court of public opinion. As testimony in the landmark case, Vegara vs. California, resumed today inside a state superior court, another star witness took the stand — more accurately, the mic — outside the courtroom. Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held...

Steve Zimmer isn’t giving up. Despite legal opinions against him, the LA Unified board member for District 4 is still seeking a way to give voting rights to a temporary appointee to the vacant District 1 board seat until a permanent member is elected later this year. The board voted earlier this month against such a...

A new report from the National Council on Teachers Quality finds that California has made marginal, if any, progress on improving state policies that shape effective teachers. For the third straight time, California was given an overall grade of D+ by the council, which issues a new report for every other year. Compared with the...

Few L.A. teachers get bad ratings, trial documents show More instructors than ever are being evaluated in detail in the Los Angeles Unified School District and only a small percentage are being rated as substandard, according to testimony Wednesday in litigation aimed at reducing teacher job protections. LA Times LA school officials say they’re in...

And so begins the battle of the expert titans. In the landmark lawsuit, Vergara vs. California, the winner may ultimately be the side that had the more persuasive expert witnesses. The first came to the stand today as lawyers for the nine students bringing the suit called Harvard professor Raj Chetty, a renowned expert in public...

Via The Washington Post | By Lyndsey Layton The Education Department on Wednesday reversed a long-standing policy and will now allow public charter schools that receive federal grants to give admissions preference to low-income children, minorities and other disadvantaged students. The move is designed to try to preserve racial diversity in schools that are attractive...