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CA High School Grads’ ACT Scores Slightly Higher Than US Average
California’s high school graduates are outperforming the national average in meeting college readiness benchmarks, according to the latest ACT assessments. But the same study also finds that state graduates are making only modest gains, if any, in the four subject areas measured – English, reading, math and science. Overall, a third of California’s ACT-tested high school...
By LA School Report | August 22, 2013
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The ‘Best’ and ‘Worst’ of Assemblyman Tim Donnelly
Tim Donnelly, a Republican state lawmaker who is running for governor in 2014, has an idea. He wants to spend $500,000 of his campaign funds to find the state’s “worst” and “best” teachers, using the money to help remove the “worst” teacher and celebrate the “best teacher.” He’s predicting “thousands of people” will send in...
By LA School Report | August 22, 2013
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San Pedro High Students Get Chance to Earn College Credit
Students at San Pedro High School are getting a bonus this year. In what may be the first such opportunity for its students, advanced classes will count toward college credit at Marymount California University, a private, four-year, liberal arts college in Rancho Palos Verde. San Pedro High is one of 11 public, private or charter...
By LA School Report | August 22, 2013
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UTLA Files Action Against District Over Teacher Evaluations*
The teachers union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against LA Unified over the new teacher evaluations. The union took the complaint to the Public Employment Relations Board, or PERB, a quasi-judicicial state agency that hears public employee disputes. In addition to the legal action, the union has distributed letters for teachers to give to their...
By Hillel Aron | August 21, 2013
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‘Parent Trigger’ Doc in Final LA Showing With Director Q&A
http://vimeo.com/72350730 “We The Parents” chronicles the story of parents in Compton, who, in the face of a failing elementary school, used California’s fledgling “Parent Trigger” law to make major changes at McKinley Elementary School. Director James Takata is appearing at the film’s last screening in Los Angeles to take questions from the audience — click here...
By LA School Report | August 21, 2013
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Joe Nunez, CTA Head, No. 2 Again in ‘Capitol Weekly’ 100
Capitol Weekly’s annual Top 100 list — what it calls a “subjective ranking of unelected political players” — is out, and for the second year in a row, Joe Nunez, the head of the California Teachers Association, is #2, just behind Ann Gust, who is Governor Jerry Brown‘s wife. The paper called the 325,000 member...
By Hillel Aron | August 21, 2013
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Marshall Tuck to Oppose Torlakson for State Superintendent
Marshall Tuck, the former president of Green Dot Public Schools and former CEO of Partnership for LA Schools, has announced his candidacy for State Superintendent of Public Education. Tuck, 40, resigned from the Partnership schools in June, shortly before the Partnership’s founder, Mayor Antonio Villaraigiosa, left office. Tuck was said to be considering a run for...
By Hillel Aron | August 21, 2013
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Public Dislikes Common Core Standards, Says New Gallup Poll
The new Common Core State Standards, now being phased in by California and 44 other states, are getting low grades from the American public, according to the 45th edition of the PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, the longest-running survey of American attitudes on education. “Americans’ mistrust of standardized tests and...
By LA School Report | August 21, 2013
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Morning Read: Common Core Training? Of Course. But How?
L.A. Unified Union, District at Odds over Training for Common Core Both Los Angeles Unified officials and the union representing teachers agree that the bulk of one-time state money for the transition to the Common Core standards should be spent on teacher training. They disagree over how best to provide it. In a debate that...
By LA School Report | August 21, 2013
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School Board Meeting Wrap Up: More Discussion Than Votes*
What began as a breezy LA Unified School Board meeting on Tuesday turned, not surprisingly, into a long, tedious, sometimes rancorous session, with a host of issues discussed but rarely resolved. A number of key votes were postponed, and Superintendent John Deasy’s highly anticipated budget presentation was postponed until the Sept. 10 board meeting so it could...
By Hillel Aron | August 20, 2013