LA School Report

So far, just three school board candidates have turned in their signatures for review and approval: sitting school board President Monica Garcia in District 2, Kate Anderson in District 4, and Maria Cano in District 6. (See: City Clerk filing status list) Pictured above on the left, the 42 year-old Cano is running for District...

LAUSD Not a Race to the Top 2012 Finalist Finalists for the White House’s 2012 Race to the Top grant competition were released Monday. To no one’s surprise, the Los Angeles Unified School District is not a contender. Huff Po Four CA Districts Make Race to the Top Finals Out of 17 districts that applied...

Remember a few weeks ago when UTLA refused to sign onto LAUSD’s Race to the Top application, and Superintendent John Deasy sent it in anyway (along with a press release)? Well it took the US Department of Education about five minutes to reject LAUSD’s application, and — thanks to 300 peer reviewers — it took...

The teachers union has a new communications director – its third since June, and LAUSD’s much-hyped “social media director” is moving on to greener pastures. Suzanne Spurgeon, former CNN Vice President, replaces Kim Turner, who replaced Marla Eby in the summer. LAUSD, meanwhile, no longer employs Stephanie Abrams, who served briefly as their social media...

Some have said that the LA Times education coverage is overly teacher- and union-friendly. Indeed,  today’s news roundup alone contains a news story about the rollout of the new teacher observation system and another about the challenges of co-locating charter and district schools on the same campus. But a comparison of the images accompanying the latest editorial on Board member...

L.A.’s Revamped Teacher Evaluation System Getting Mixed Grades Teachers are finding value in the new evaluation system as it rolls out, but administrators doing the reviews complain about how time-consuming they are. LA Times LAUSD Moves to Speed English Learners Into Mainstream Triggered by a federal civil rights investigation, Los Angeles Unified has launched a...

Kate Anderson is getting the nod from Councilman Bill Rosendahl, a coveted endorsement for the contested 4th district school board seat which stretches from the Pacific Palisades to Hollywood. “Kate Anderson’s dedication is clear,” Rosendahl states in an email announcement from the Anderson campaign. “As a parent of two young daughters, Kate wants to change LAUSD so that parents...

LA Charter First In KIPP Network To Embrace Blended Learning At KIPP Empower, that model calls for kindergartners to spend roughly 11 percent of their extended, 8 1/2 -hour school day working on reading or math exercises on a laptop computer. But classes at the school feel, by and large, similar to other early-elementary classrooms...

Fiscal cliff not imminent for school districts The one education cut that would take effect Jan. 1 affects Impact Aid, which involves payments in lieu of property taxes to districts where federal facilities are located. EdSource Teacher accused of fondling student pleads not guilty A former Miramonte Elementary School teacher pleaded not guilty Monday to...

New L.A. teachers too often placed with neediest students, study finds  More so than in the other districts, Los Angeles schools also disproportionately placed newer teachers with less-proficient students  –-  who are an average six months behind peers assigned to more experienced instructors. Los Angeles Times Schools eat up challenge of new federal nutrition standards...