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Why California’s Teacher of the Year thinks moving the school calendar is a bad idea

The school board just made Daniel Jocz’s job a lot harder. Jocz, who is a National Teacher of the Year finalist and the 2016 California State Teacher of the Year, already has to record lectures and give homework to cover five chapters of American history over the summer. He does that so his students can...
By Mike Szymanski | September 21, 2016
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Former Superintendent John Deasy previews new initiative to rethink juvenile prisons

See previous interviews by The 74: Former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, U.S. Senator and Education Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, University of Michigan economist Susan Dynarski, Harvard Education School Dean Jim Ryan. Full 74 Interview archive here. As superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, John Deasy laid out an ambitious vision for improving schools. Today, his supporters say...
By Matt Barnum | September 21, 2016
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JUST IN: School starts one week later next year, then inches toward Labor Day, LAUSD decides

The LA Unified school board decided Tuesday night to start school one week later next year, moving the start date to Aug. 22, then to Aug. 28 the following year. After passionate debate on both sides, five school board members voted for the change, and two voted against it. The number of days of instruction...
By Mike Szymanski | September 20, 2016
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LIVESTREAM of today’s LA Unified school board meeting

The LA Unified school board is scheduled to hold an open session meeting today starting at 2 p.m. Key items on the agenda include a consideration of starting school later in the year and an exploration of building workforce housing near Sun Valley High School. The board is also scheduled to hold a second meeting at 6 p.m....
By LA School Report | September 20, 2016
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Commentary: Reversing teacher burnout in Los Angeles: Giving teachers room to invest

By Jane Mayer and Jesse Soza, Ed.D. Teacher turnover in the United States is a silent epidemic — one that is eroding the core of our schools. Every year, over 1 million teachers enter and exit our classrooms, and in Los Angeles alone, 40-50% will leave the profession entirely within five years. This creates unstable...
By Guest Contributors | September 20, 2016
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Superior Court judge denies lawsuit that claimed teacher evaluations must include student test scores

A judge in Northern California on Monday denied the claims in a lawsuit that challenged school districts that don’t use student test scores as part of teacher evaluations. Students Matter, the nonprofit organization that filed Vergara v. California, sued 13 California school districts last year, saying those districts were not in compliance with the Stull...
By Sarah Favot | September 19, 2016
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‘I’m very skeptical of online recovery programs’: Q & A with board President Steve Zimmer

LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer recently sat down with LA School Report at his field office tucked away in an east Hollywood strip mall, where there is a unique partnership with the Youth Policy Institute and the school district that hosts after-school programs, adult classes and classes for homeless youth. During the hour-long...
By Sarah Favot | September 19, 2016
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King asks LAUSD managers to tell her how they would slash 30 percent from their budgets

By Kyle Stokes Superintendent Michelle King has asked managers in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s central offices to submit plans outlining how they would slash their departments’ budgets by 30 percent in the coming fiscal year, according to a memo obtained by KPCC. For now, it’s just a planning exercise. But top district officials say...
By LA School Report | September 19, 2016
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VIDEO: Thousands take the charter cause to the streets at Rally in the Valley

Thousands of people marched through the streets of San Fernando and Pacoima on Saturday, calling on their leaders at LA Unified and Sacramento to support the charter school movement. The “Rally in the Valley” began at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in San Fernando, which was the first charter school to be started at LA...
By Craig Clough | September 19, 2016
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LAUSD summer school had better teaching, higher grades and 758 graduates in August

Innovative summer school practices are credited with helping 758 students graduate through a credit recovery program, and grades were significantly higher as LA Unified went out of its way to increase the quality of the teachers giving the summer school instruction. “We are emphatically keeping high standards for summer school like we do during the school...
By Mike Szymanski | September 16, 2016