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California Teachers Association wields outsized influence over national teacher union policies
The National Education Association held its annual Representative Assembly in Minneapolis last week. Six thousand delegates, representing teachers and education support workers in every state, met to debate and vote on the national union’s budget and agenda for the 2018-19 school year. Each year the delegates amend NEA’s constitution and by-laws, federal legislative program, resolutions,...
By Mike Antonucci | July 10, 2018
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Brett Kavanaugh, son of D.C. teacher, nominated for Supreme Court; has praised efforts to allow religious schools’ participation in publicly funded programs

After much waiting and Twitter speculation, President Trump announced on live television Monday night that he is nominating conservative D.C. Appeals Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. With only one school district under the D.C. Circuit’s jurisdiction, District of Columbia Public Schools, Kavanaugh’s record on school-related...
By Carolyn Phenicie | July 10, 2018
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Education by the numbers: 9 statistics that have made us think differently about America’s schools this academic year

Even with a perpetual media carnival unfolding around the Trump presidency, and ahead of midterm elections that could result in an even more hectic news environment next year, the events of 2018 have been shaped to an extraordinary degree by America’s K-12 schools. After a massacre at a Florida high school in February, the national...
By Kevin Mahnken | July 9, 2018
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The best of 2018 (so far): Our 9 most popular articles about LA students and schools from spring semester

Like the graduation mortarboards of June, 2018 is flying by. Catch up with the best of the year so far with our top nine stories. (For you math geeks, that’s half the year of ‘18.) Also spin through some of our favorites from our new feature this year, Parent Voices. THE TOP 9 1. LAUSD’s interim...
By Laura Greanias | July 2, 2018
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Divided Supreme Court ends mandatory dues for union members and — in further blow to organized labor — rules that workers must opt in

The Supreme Court in a sweeping decision Wednesday upended the way public-sector unions do business, ruling that dissenting employees cannot be compelled to pay any dues, and that union members must affirmatively opt in to membership — rather than requiring dissenters to opt out. Forcing dissenting employees to pay dues violates First Amendment protections against compelling...
By Carolyn Phenicie | June 27, 2018
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A growing achievement gap in civics education: What a new study reveals about social studies, class and race

Student performance in civics has improved over the last two decades, even as the gap in civic knowledge has grown along class and racial lines during that period. That’s the conclusion of a new study released today by the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy. Its Report on American Education, an annual publication exploring...
By Kevin Mahnken | June 27, 2018
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Analysis: California Teachers Association to spend up to $10 million supporting two statewide ballot initiatives — and opposing three others
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Every member of the California Teachers Association contributes $36 annually to the union’s ballot initiative fund. Unspent money rolls over and today the fund holds in excess of $23 million. This month CTA’s State Council, comprised of almost 800 union representatives from across California, approved...
By Mike Antonucci | June 26, 2018
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Child immigrants in federal custody are entitled to an education. Here’s how it works

At a repurposed Walmart just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, the freezer aisles, toy department, and everyday low prices are nowhere in sight. Instead, the former shopping center that now dons a “Casa Padre” sign houses dorm-style bedrooms, a cafeteria — and classrooms. The facility in Brownsville, Texas, which houses more than 1,400 immigrant boys,...
By Mark Keierleber | June 25, 2018
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Inside Citizens of the World, the intentionally diverse California school network built around community engagement and students’ unique backgrounds

Over the past year, researchers from The Century Foundation have analyzed roughly 5,700 charter schools in all 50 states in an attempt to produce the first-ever nationwide inventory of diversity in the public charter school sector. This school profile was adapted from The Century Foundation report “Citizens of the World Charter Schools: Balancing Network and Community.”...
By Halley Potter | June 22, 2018
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From California to Rhode Island, what a new national report on personalized learning practices reveals about teacher enthusiasm — and the bureaucratic hurdles of school districts

When school districts adopt personalized learning, the bulk of the work falls to teachers, who, while excited about the opportunity to innovate, are often not supported by their school systems to implement and share their ideas. That’s according to new research from the Center for Reinventing Public Education, which analyzed the efforts of districts and...
By Kate Stringer | June 21, 2018