Last week, the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit Vergara v. State of California, which seeks to overturn five education laws in California (seniority-based layoffs, teacher tenure, and three dismissal statutes that make firing a teacher so onerous). “This lawsuit is baseless and...

AB 375, a new bill meant to streamline teacher dismissals, could be headed for quick passage after clearing the State Assembly’s Education Committee with a 7 – 0 vote Thursday. The bill’s chance at passing is undoubtedly aided by the announcement last week that the state’s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Association, was joining...

Curious about how the parent trigger is evolving in Los Angeles and nationwide?  Here’s the audio from a Friday morning panel at Yale University on the parent trigger featuring Parent Trigger’s Ben Austin and former state Senator Gloria Romero, who authored the controversial law, along with the Fordham Foundation’s Adam Emerson and moderator Andy Rotherham....

Former District 4 (Westside/Hollywood) School Board candidate Kate Anderson sounded relaxed and content during a phone interview yesterday afternoon. The Mar Vista parent laughed easily and often, and said she was getting to see her children a lot more in the month since the March 5 primary. But she wasn’t without ideas and regrets in terms...

The California Teachers Pension Fund (CalSTRS), the largest fund of its kind in the United States, is facing a $70 billion budget crisis, and there are growing concerns that Prop 30 money could be diverted from local schools and into the pension system. A Huffington Post article on Wednesday pointed to a recent report from...

The new spokesman for the Coalition for School Reform is a familiar face — Addisu Demissie of 50+1 Strategies, the Oakland-based strategist who ran the Coalition’s field operation in the primary. Demissie replaces Janelle Erickson, who recently took a job as campaign manager for Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel. The Coalition was 1-1-1 in the primary.  It helped get...

LA School Report has learned that, on Tuesday, the 24th St. Elementary Parents Union selection review committee met and decided to recommend what’s being called a “hybrid” governance model for the school. Under the parent trigger law, a majority of parents at a low-performing school can petition to revamp the school in any number of ways,...

On Tuesday, Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel launched what LA Weekly‘s Gene Maddaus is calling a “reboot” of her campaign, delivering a speech with a meaty education section that included strong support for “reform” ideas like charter schools and rigorous teacher evaluations. “I will fight to reform our public schools,” she said, according to text of the...

Here’s a good MSNBC segment to help understand the indictments against 34 Atlanta educators that came out on Friday, and what they mean for testing, teachers, and parents nationwide:

The day after the March 5 primary election, a tired-looking Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa mentioned off-hand that turnout for the LAUSD School Board elections was a dismal seven percent. A couple of weeks later on KPCC, he amended that number to 14 percent. So which is it? Neither, actually.  Voter turnout for the LAUSD races was initially reported...