By Howard Blume and Zahira Torres The Los Angeles Board of Education voted this week to fire nationally recognized teacher Rafe Esquith, following a misconduct investigation that included allegations he made an improper joke to students and inappropriately touched minors, according to sources with knowledge of the decision. The longtime educator at Hobart Avenue Elementary School,...

LA Unified announced today a final agreement with Pearson, the software company, that will bring $6.45 million back to the district as reimbursement for the content and services delivered under a technology partnership. The settlement ends one aspect of the district’s iPad program, that was built upon a deal with Apple and Pearson and was...

While teachers protested a proposed charter expansion plan outside the LA Unified school board meeting yesterday, union leaders involved with the district and a former board president, spoke out against it inside. On the street, about 100 teachers rallied against the effort by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation that would more than double the number of...

The LA Unified school board yesterday got a first-hand look at a first-of-its-kind apprentice program, which will train 10 current district employees to become heating, ventilating, and air conditioning technicians. “This is a unique program in this district, in this state and in this nation. A first of its kind,” Superintendent Ramon Cortines said during a...

By Carolyn Phenicie Discussion of education issues was slim and scarce again at Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate, with only two brief mentions of education as a civil rights issue and a solitary question devoted to higher education. However, the two frontrunners, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, did address education...

Educators try to come to terms with low math scores on Smarter Balanced tests Only one-third of California students in grades 3-8 and grade 11 met the math standard – compared to 44 percent of students who met the standard in English. EdSource, by Fermin Leal ‘Redskins’ ban angers fans of California schools still using...

If you’re eager to have a say in the selection of LA Unified’s next superintendent, here’s your chance. Starting next week, the district is holding scores of meetings to enable members of the public to express opinions. Whether they will actually influence the decision is another matter, but in the spirit of community involvement, the...

For the first time, the public yesterday got a full picture of how LA Unified intends to carry out the search and selection of the district’s next superintendent, with a process that encourages transparency and public participation — but only until the final stages. Hank Gmitro of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, the firm handing...

There is something special happening at Kipp Raíces Academy School in East LA, an independent charter school which recently became LA Unified’s only National Blue Ribbon School for 2015. While 90 percent of the students at KIPP Raíces are from low-income families and 96 percent are Latino and more than half of all students are English...

Board member Mónica Ratliff asked why a controversial attorney was rehired by the district before members of the LA Unified board went into closed session today, . The lawyer in question, Keith Wyatt, won a case for the school district, absolving it from damages, but the way he argued it continues to cause a lot of...