LA School Report

Former Bush education official and prominent school reform critic Diane Ravitch is heading a new national education advocacy organization aimed at engaging parents and teachers in opposition to pro-accountability, pro-charter reform efforts. As noted in EdSource Today, the new organization will make use of social media and will endorse — but not necessarily fund — candidates...

Big Money in L.A. School Board Races UTLA is apparently, re-interviewing the two remaining candidates. It sat out that race in the first round by endorsing all three candidates and spending no money. LA Times Runoff Campaigns Kick Off, City Hall Girds for More Cuts The mayoral campaign entered a new phase Wednesday, as Eric...

Before and during a Wednesday evening education event held at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, a tired-looking Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa expressed frustration about the previous day’s election results — and pledged to keep working on school reform issues even after his term expires. “Obviously I was disappointed with the results in the fourth district,” Villaraigosa told LA School...

Some of the best and worst reporting and commentary since yesterday is rounded up below. As you’ll see, it includes questions about the ineffectiveness of the attacks on Zimmer, a couple of stories that wonder why the Coalition took Zimmer on in the first place, and some attempts to connect the LAUSD race to education...

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and UTLA President Warren Fletcher both sat down separately with KPCC’s “Take Two” radio program to discuss their post-election reactions and visions for the future of LA schools. Listen to the Deasy interview here and the Fletcher interview here. Highlights from Deasy’s interview include his reaction to Steve Zimmer’s win over Kate Anderson in District...

Unlike the closely watched Coalition for School Reform and the teachers union, SEIU Local 99 — which represents LAUSD classified employees like cafeteria workers and custodians — came out of Tuesday’s election an unequivocal winner. The union was two for three on election night, having backed both Monica Garcia and Steve Zimmer — and could...

Victorious LAUSD Incumbent Vows to Keep Challenging Deasy Having presented the Los Angeles School Board election races as a referendum on Superintendent John Deasy’s future, the club of six- and seven-figure donors in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Coalition for School Reform may have succeeded in making Deasy’s life more complicated. EdSource See also: LA Daily News,...

Two UTLA-endorsed candidates, Antonio Sanchez and Monica Ratliff, won the most votes yesterday and will face each other in the May 21 general election for District 6. Earlier today, UTLA President Warren Fletcher put out a pro forma press release saying that either Sanchez or Ratliff would be strong Board members. However, UTLA’s House of...

After months of campaigning, thousands of trees chopped down and turned into glossy direct mail, and nearly $6 million spent, last night’s LAUSD Board election left the  ideological makeup of the School Board essentially untouched. Incumbent Monica Garcia won her re-election outright, garnering a very healthy 56% of the vote. In District 6, Antonio Sanchez is heading toward...

Last week, UTLA sent out an “evaluation rights toolkit” to all its chapter chairs to help members “effectively assert their evaluation rights, and to defeat Deasy’s attempted end‐run around the contract.” The “end-run” refers to the guidelines sent out by Superintendent John Deasy, recommending that up to 30 percent of new teacher evaluations be devoted...