LA School Report

“When you were a kid you imagined that your teachers lived in closets and subsisted on coffee grinds and eraser gum,” notes this LA Weekly item (Cassandra McGrath’s Stories to Make You Cry).  Instead, the 28 year-old teacher has published an anthology of stories called “Rising From The Ashes,” featuring the work of former Belmont High School...

United Teachers Los Angeles announced in the latest edition of its weekly newsletter that it plans to push back harder against LAUSD’s so-called “teacher jails,” where teachers accused of misconduct are sent to wait while the district investigates their cases. As LA School Report contributor Hillel Aron wrote in a recent LA Weekly report, teachers sent to “jail” are usually...

L.A. County Democratic Party Endorses LAUSD Board Candidates The Los Angeles County Democratic Party voted late Tuesday to endorse incumbent Steve Zimmer and newcomer Antonio Sanchez for the LAUSD board but declined to support board President Monica Garcia or any of the four rivals for her Eastside seat. LA Daily News New Silver Lake Principal...

A study released Tuesday by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation showed that the controversial method of measuring teachers’ effectiveness with students’ test scores can be useful, but only when balanced with other factors, such as student feedback and classroom observation. Teachers unions, including UTLA, have long insisted that grading teachers based on their student...

The Los Angeles Fund for Public Education, a philanthropy dedicated among other things to bringing arts integration programs to LA area schools, launched the second part of a $4 million public art and arts education fundraising campaign called “Arts Matter” on Tuesday. Twelve city buses, 175 billboards, and 271 additional spaces across Los Angeles will...

Last night, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party voted to endorse Steve Zimmer and Antonio Sanchez for LAUSD school board. However, the question of whether or not to endorse Monica Garcia for East LA’s District 2 became the subject of a brief but spirited floor fight. “It hurts me to speak against her,” said former City...

The Coalition for School Reform will support Monica Garcia, Kate Anderson and Antonio Sanchez in their respective bids for LAUSD school board, according to paperwork filed with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission yesterday (you can see the form here). The endorsements of Garcia and Anderson were expected. There was something of a question mark over what...

State Schools Chief Urges Cut in Number of Tests Next Year Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson says second-graders would not be tested in math and English, and most high school tests would be dropped. L.A. Unified chief expresses reservations. LA Times See also: KPCC, LA Daily News Student Test Scores Can Identify Effective Teachers,...

This Thursday is the 4th quarterly filing deadline for municipal candidates (as well as independent expenditure committees), including those running for LAUSD school board, which will tell us how much money everyone raised during the last three months of 2012. It’s a sort of awkward period, since much of it occurred before candidates officially declared...

Coming in March, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network is going to start airing Blackboard Wars, the six-part story of the attempt to turn around New Orleans’ McDonogh High School. Produced by Discovery and originally titled “Treme High,” the series features a challenging turnaround attempt undertaken through an organization called Future Is Now Schools, which was created by...