LA School Report

State’s largest urban districts post gains on national assessment Three of California’s largest school districts showed gains on a national assessment of urban districts that also singled out Los Angeles and Fresno Unified for special recognition from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. EdSource Network upgrades to push up cost of LA schools’ massive iPad...

LA Unified students showed significant gains in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to data released today. Fourth-grade students recorded the highest gain – four points— among 21 urban school systems since 2011; fourth-graders also scored higher in math, and eighth-graders scored higher in reading. “I’m proud of the performance of our youth,” Superintendent...

The committee that oversees how LA Unified spends bond money today recommended that the district school board scale back the size of the next phase of iPad distribution. In rejecting the latest proposal from Superintendent John Deasy, the School Construction Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee voted to reduce the number of iPads bought, to 38,535 from...

It’s the other delay yesterday that portends long-term consequences for LA Unified students. In the latest sign of the deep divide on the district school board, the members voted to hold off the next phase of the iPad program, rather than approve a carefully crafted compromise that the board had hammered out, and passed, at...

L.A. Unified board delays decision on replacing LaMotte The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday delayed a decision on how to fill the seat of former member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte, who died earlier this month. Three members wanted to postpone the discussion until after LaMotte’s funeral, while three others supported taking up the issue...

The LA Unified school board today postponed until next month any consideration of how to fill the board seat left vacant by the death of Marguerite LaMotte, bowing to a wave of pleas from speakers asking the board to wait until after her funeral. A 3-3 vote on a motion to allow discussion to begin...

Just a day after US Representative Maxine Waters was actively pressing the LA Unified school board to appoint a candidate she favored to fill the vacant school board seat, she reversed herself today and is now urging the board to delay any action until next year. As a press conference she said she is doing...

UPDATE | 10:50AM At a press conference, US Representative Maxine Waters softened her position of favoring an appointment and asked the school board to delay today’s vote. As the LA Unified school board gears up for today’s meeting, only one thing is certain: it will be controversial. The highest profile issue on the agenda is...