LA School Report

LAUSD school board member Bennett Kayser will host a town hall on Wednesday night, October 24, at 6 PM to talk about Propositions 30 and 38. Kayser introduced a non-binding resolution at the August 21 board meeting to endorse both tax measures (see School Board To California Voters: Send Money). Read the press release here.

Lessons From Los Angeles Unlike New York City–where philanthropic funding supported a top-down approach to reform, a fairly similar set of reform ideas (school level autonomy, choice, and accountability) have spread more slowly and organically in Los Angeles. Education Week (commentary) Education Prize Eludes Corona-Norco District The Corona-Norco Unified School District is a finalist for...

Mediator Don Raska has been appointed to try to help resolve the teacher evaluation negotiations between LAUSD and the teachers union (UTLA), according to a UTLA newsletter. The October 19th issue of the United Teacher states that, “the union continues to push back against LAUSD’s proposal to link a percentage of a teacher’s evaluation to...

Schools Face Test From Voters [This] is the largest number of education-tax initiatives to appear on state election ballots in two decades, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Wall St. Journal (subscription required; via KPCC) Fact Check: Obama Supports Smaller Classes in Public Schools The president has publicly supported the concept...

LA School Report has learned that Jeneen Robinson (pictured) plans on running for LAUSD Board member in District 4 against incumbent Steve Zimmer, though she has yet to file official paperwork. Robinson, 40, grew up in Virginia and moved to Los Angeles about 10 years ago. She lives in Westchester and has a son attending a...

Here’s a chart from the folks at UCLA IDEA that tells a familiar story in a particularly stark visual way: See: The Education Battle that All Sides Could Lose

On Friday, LAUSD Board Member Steve Zimmer told LA School Report that his charter school oversight proposal would be revised and reintroduced yet again at the next Board meeting on November 13 in a version that is “a better representation of what my overall purpose is.”  As described, the latest version is nonbinding and asks charter...

Deasy: Teachers Delaying LAUSD Bid for $40M in Federal Grants Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District raced on Monday to meet a fast-approaching deadline to apply for up to $40 million in federal grants. But Superintendent John Deasy said United Teachers Los Angeles has yet to sign off on the bid because it “requires...

In early October, LAUSD board member Tamar Galatzan told us about “middle-class schools that don’t qualify for Title I anti-poverty dollars,” and that a lot of them “are becoming affiliated charters in order to get access to additional funds.”  (See: Board Member Galatzan Tells (Almost) All.) There are 42 “affiliated charters”, schools which operate within the UTLA contract, but...

One of the lowest-performing schools in LAUSD, Samuel Gompers Middle School, opened two new learning gardens this week. The gardens were installed with a grant from a non-profit called Kitchen Community and are intended to help fight childhood obesity and diabetes. LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, who is strong proponent of linking nutrition and education, was...