LA School Report

• Schools Open, New and Old – Including Miramonte: By now, that first morning bell has rung, the children of Los Angeles are sitting quietly (ahem) at their desks, and 20 brand new schools have opened their doors for the first time. Superintendent John Deasy will visit a dozen or so schools, including Miramonte Elementary, where two...

California appears to be the only state in the nation that has applied for — but not yet received — a so-called “waiver” from NCLB but doesn’t already have a one-year freeze on NCLB’s ever-escalating proficiency requirements in its back pocket.  That means California schools will be among the only ones in the nation operating under...

While the legal status of the Reed v. California settlement was thrown into limbo with Friday’s court ruling, we thought this might be a good time to look at the three recent court cases which, taken together, represent a new front in the education reform battles of California. Frustrated by the State Legislature’s inability to enact...

• Be More Like New Jersey: An LA Times editorial argues that California follow in New Jersey’s footsteps, which just reformed its teacher tenure rules, lengthening the probationary period to four years (it had been three; in California it is 18 months), and limiting the arbitration period for firing a tenured teacher to three months, at...

Late Friday, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals voided the settlement on the Reed v. CA lawsuit, which had rewritten how teacher layoffs are conducted at 45 under-performing LAUSD schools. That settlement — result of a lawsuit brought by students in low performing schools who called the practice discriminatory– reversed the so-called ‘last in/first out’ practice, which has traditionally given...

• Deasy’s Big Speech: Lots of coverage of Superintendent John Deasy’s big speech to school administrators. LA Times, Daily News, CBS, NBC, La Opinion.  • Building a Better LAUSD: To complement Deasy’s speech, LAUSD produced a feel-good promotional video. Vimeo • Rally Calls For Fewer Police Citations Of LAUSD Students: 50 students, teachers and community activists performed street theater and installed...

In his annual address to school administrators, Superintendent John Deasy proposed giving every single educator and student a tablet computer within 15 months. As the Daily News noted over the weekend, Deasy has been lobbying tech companies to donate the tablets. Deasy’s 40-minute speech also touted some of the districts recent successes, such as cutting disciplinary suspensions...

• John Deasy’s State of the Schools Speech: The LAUSD superintendent just made a speech in front of principals and administrators. KPCC was live-blogging the affair, while the Daily News’ Barbara Jones was live-tweeting. CBS also had a preview. • Teacher From Freeway Chase Pleads Not Guilty to Molestation Charges: PE teacher Kip Richard Arnold, 51,...

It’s not just about 186 independent charter schools and 763 public schools in LA anymore. Nowadays, there are eight different school models, each with a different level of autonomy. Last week, we told you about Steve Barr’s interest in starting pilot schools, which are  small schools with under 500 kids that operate within the district but...

Former majority leader of the California State Senate and current head of the California chapter of Democrats for Education Reform (DFER), Romero was the first prominent Democrat to endorse Prop. 32, which would set new limits on union fundraising. See my previous post, How Prop. 32 Could Affect LAUSD, for more on the measure and Romero’s...