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Analysis: Deasy’s Extension Means Stability for LA Unified
Via Ed Source | By Charles Taylor Kerchner The Los Angeles Unified School District board bought itself a little stability last week when it extended Superintendent John Deasy’s contract for a year by handing him a “satisfactory” rating in his annual evaluation. Buying stability can be a good thing; it’s a key to educational success....
By LA School Report | November 8, 2013
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LA Unified Scrambling to Count Numbers of Homeless Students
November is National Homeless Youth Awareness Month, and LA Unified’s Homeless Education Program is holding events to highlight the need to remove the educational barriers caused by homelessness. They are barriers the District is finding hard to overcome. Before 2006, there was one homeless student liaison for the entire district. Since the homeless program began that...
By Chase Niesner | November 7, 2013
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Teacher Union Survey Shows Mixed Support for iPads

A slight plurality of LA Unified teachers said they would favor continuing the iPad program, according to a new UTLA survey that produced mixed results in a district contemplating the next phase of a billion dollar digital device program. The union poll was conducted over a week in late October, with 255 teachers from the...
By Michael Janofsky | November 7, 2013
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CA 8th Graders Make Nation’s Top Gains in Reading Scores

California’s eighth graders made the biggest gain in reading scores in the country last year, according to the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Results for fourth and eighth grade reading and math were released today, “The resilience and tenacity of our schools have seen them through some...
By LA School Report | November 7, 2013
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A School Board Seat to the Rarest of Candidates: a Student

I want to take a bit of editorial license here – actually, the editor’s license — to call attention to this: Chase Harrison, an 18-year-old senior at Millburn High School in northern New Jersey, won a seat last night for a one-year term on the Millburn Township School Board. He knocked off the board’s vice...
By Michael Janofsky | November 6, 2013
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LA Unified Board Sees a Digital Future, Maybe without iPads

Over eight hours today, in another tedious LA Unified board meeting, members one-by-one pledged to forge ahead with the district’s ambitious technology program to bridge the digital divide for some of the nation’s poorest students. But for the first time, some board members signaled that the way forward may not include Apple iPads. The meeting...
By Vanessa Romo | November 5, 2013
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California Launches ‘Charter School Best Practices Project’
Charter schools now have a digital space to share the secrets to their success. The California Department of Education today announced the launching of the Charter Schools Best Practices Project, a trove of information aimed at assisting people interested in starting charter schools, evaluating charter school petitions and increasing student achievement in charter school classrooms. The project...
By Chase Niesner | November 5, 2013
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Security Gets a Boost Throughout LA Unified Schools

LA Unified campuses are safer this year with increased security efforts that reflect concerns over school violence, particularly shooters that might make their way on to campus. The district this year has implemented new training and new policies, with an increased number of safety personnel at elementary schools and other campuses. Steve Zipperman, the district’s...
By Jessica P. Ogilvie | November 5, 2013
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LA Unified Estimates Costs for Future Digitial Devices

As LA Unified continues distributing iPads, the district for the first time is providing cost estimates for continuing the program beyond its current end date, December 2015. And in a presentation planned for tomorrow’s school board meeting, the Common Core Technology Project committee, chaired by board member Monica Ratliff, is also revealing several possibilities for how...
By Vanessa Romo | November 4, 2013
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LAUSD Strikes Back: ‘Mythbusting’ the iPads

Either as a response to iPad problems or as prelude to the LA Unified School Board’s meeting tomorrow that’s focusing on technology — or maybe both — the district sent around a one-pager last week to set the record straight on the iPad program. It takes the form of “myth busting.” Here is a concise...
By LA School Report | November 4, 2013