In a recorded robo-call sent out to teachers last night, seven UTLA leaders encouraged them to attend the LA Unified board meeting next week and relate positive things that are going on in their schools. The union leaders, led by president Alex Caputo-Pearl, took turns encouraging teachers to remind the board that great things are...

Scott Schmerelson has revised his LA Unified board resolution that attacks an outside group’s plan to expand the number of charter schools in the district. A majority of the seven board members has expressed opposition to the plan. But a shift in mission from the group — Great Public Schools Now, supported by the Broad Foundation and...

By Christopher Cadelago With Californians staring down the prospect of a crowded ballot next fall, a new poll finds that 61 percent of likely voters believe there are too many propositions. At the same time, about the same percentage say they are satisfied with the way the initiative process is working, according to Public Policy...

The LA Unified school board said today it will begin the first round of interviews of candidates for superintendent at 8:30 Sunday morning. It’s the start of the endgame for the seven board members, who are seeking to find a successor to Ramon Cortines before he steps down at the end of the year. In...

A digital rights group in San Francisco has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Google, accusing it of spying on students that use the company’s Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education (GAFE) software by collecting and data mining children’s personal information, including their Internet searches. If true, the practice might violate...

Parents, teachers and school administrators from Larchmont Charter School in West Hollywood are protesting a cell phone tower proposed for a church bell tower next to the campus, with a large turnout expected at a public hearing at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the West Hollywood Library. The independent charter school is overseen by LAUSD but...

By Howard Blume Nearly $2.3 million in donations made by charter school supporters during this year’s Los Angeles school board races were shielded from disclosure until after the election was over, a review of records shows. Those contributions — from philanthropist Eli Broad, heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg...

Outgoing LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines got a series of big surprises this afternoon with a long-planned tribute that included a group of students singing for him and old friends stopping by district headquarters to honor his legacy. The school board auditorium was packed for the event, which Cortines knew nothing about. The seven school...

* UPDATED As LA Unified studies several academic calendar options while also reaching out for public input, a group of parents has started an online petition, asking the district not to consider the “extreme” option of shortening summer break to five weeks while extending winter break to seven. An advisory panel is currently studying six...

A new report from the American Institutes of Research shows that young children have up to five months of learning advantage compared with children who don’t get an extra year of kindergarten. But the report — Impact of California’s Transitional Kindergarten Program, 2013-14 — also points out that there’s a long way to go in funding the pre-school program...