LA School Report

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKVv5wsqNYk Educational efforts in Los Angeles are in the process of expanding beyond the classroom and touching community members of all ages with a wide variety of services not usually offered at typical Los Angeles school sites. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit group Youth Policy Institute (YPI) received a $30 million dollar grant from the federal...

California and the 24 other states developing the Smarter Balanced assessments aligned to the new Common Core standards have approved support tools for all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities. The supports range from digital notepads to test items translated into the student’s native language. The “Usability, Accessibility, and Accommodations Guidelines” identifies three types...

California is among the top 10 states with the sharpest declines in spending for K-12 education since the last recession, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The study found that California’s per-student spending was down 13.8 percent since the 2008 school year. In all, 34 states are spending less on K-12 education...

In an under-the-radar move, Monica Garcia has taken a job in LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina‘s office, which means she’s now a part-time member of the LA Unified school board. “For seven years, I did the LAUSD Board member job full time,” Garcia told LA School Report. “While I appreciated that intense focus on education,...

State Assembly defies feds, sends school testing overhaul to governor The California Assembly on Wednesday easily approved an overhaul of the state’s student testing system in which schools and parents would not receive test scores for at least a year. The vote of 51 to 22 was largely along party lines, with Democrats overwhelmingly in...

Sometime in hour five of yesterday’s marathon LA Unified school board meeting, the board approved a new set of guidelines to help principals, teachers and parents navigate the complex Parent Trigger process. That’s the state law allowing parents to take over a failing school and force a complete overhaul, so long as a majority of...

A new media column launched at Education Week by columnist Mark Walsh has already featured LA School Report twice in its very first week. Yesterday, in his post, L.A. Confidential: New Editor for Scrappy Education News Site, Walsh writes about the changing of the guard here at LA School Report with the hire of former...

The School Board yesterday approved a motion by Steve Zimmer to ask state lawmakers to clarify the use of Proposition 39, a 2000 law mandating that public school space be shared equitably with charter schools. That law has lead to legal disputes between district schools and charters forced to share campuses as well as a...