When school starts on August 13, students on 47 campuses will receive back-to-school gifts: brand new iPads, courtesy of LAUSD’s $30 million first phase of its technology plan, which aims to give every student and teacher an iPad by the end of 2014. And many of the campuses are located south of the 10 freeway....

With another month passing and the first day of school just two weeks away, the No Child Left Behind waiver request from LAUSD and eight other California school districts remains unfinished. A final submission must go to the U.S. Department of Education for approval. Last week, representatives from the California Office to Reform Education, which represents the...

Thanks to LAUSD’s deal with Apple, 30,000 retina display iPads — those are the latest — will land in student hands starting next month in a $400 million deal that will dramatically change how kids learn reading and math. By next August, the district says every LA Unified student will have access to a $678...

Before her election to the LA school board in May, Monica Ratliff was virtually unknown. Now, the race to influence her is on — and all sides have entered. Ratliff, a former teacher and upset winner over Antonio Sanchez in District 6, has raised just over $30,000 since her election to help retire her campaign...

Newly minted LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, in office less than a month, has been busy tapping talent for City Hall and its agencies – but still no news yet on who he’ll hire for high-level education staff positions. While waiting, we decided to bring you a Who’s Who of all the Mayoral appointments so far....

Just a few weeks before the start of the school year, parent Cynthia Ramirez today joined California Congressman George Miller and Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution, to celebrate National Parents Day (tomorrow) and to highlight efforts of parents across the country who used parent trigger law to improve their children’s schools. “On the...

There’s a fairly harsh take on the ‘parent trigger’ law in the Hechinger Report this morning, cross-posted on the Time Magazine website. “Only seven states have a parent trigger law on the books, with some versions weaker than others,” writes Natasha Lindstrom. “In 20 states, bills to create or expand such laws stalled or died...

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is speaking tomorrow at a roundtable discussion hosted by La Raza Roundtable about the state of education in the state, specifically the ongoing transition to Common Core State standards. La Raza is an advocacy group that brings community members, elected officials and public sector representatives together in the...