The bargaining session scheduled for today between LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, has been cancelled, due to an illness of a union staff member, a district official said. The agenda had included discussions of teacher support and evaluation, parent empowerment and adult education. What was not expected to be part of the dialogue...

After Tuesday’s two-hour MiSiS meltdown, Superintendent Ramon Cortines called for Microsoft to send in the cavalry and the Seattle-based company responded by sending a total of one — count ’em, one — expert to help with the glitch-plagued student data program serving 650,000 students. The system crashed when too many teachers logged on to update...

It appears that a former LA Unified worker who received little press or campaign contributions may have pulled off a huge upset and narrowly defeated incumbent Raul Bocanegra, D-Pacoima, for the District 39 seat in the California State Assembly. Patty Lopez, who is also a Democrat and a resident of San Fernando, worked at LA Unified’s North...

Steve Zimmer was the only member of the LA school board with a public response to yesterday’s victory by Tom Torlakson, who won a second term as state Superintendent for Public Instruction. In it, Zimmer makes clear his disdain for the wealthy funders who backed the losing candidate, Marshall Tuck, congratulating the state teacher unions...

Oops. Despite efforts by Superintendent Ramon Cortines and LA Unified‘s Information Technology team to get MiSiS back on track — or at the very least, semi-functional — it seems that the data management system remains unreliable. The system went down between 2 pm and 4 pm yesterday, he said in a memo to staff. It...

Marshall Tuck, who lost a close race to incumbent Tom Torlakson for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, had this to say after the votes were counted: “Sixteen months ago we set out on this journey to do one thing: put children first and ensure that every child has equal access to a quality education. And...

Via Politico | By Stephanie Simon Teachers unions framed this election as a referendum on their vision for public education. Their vision was thumped. Tens of millions in advertising portraying Republican governors as reckless ideologues who sold out kids’ futures to give tax breaks to the wealthy failed to move voters in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan,...

Tom Torlakson was re-elected yesterday as California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, with 52.1 percent of the vote to 47.9 for Marshall Tuck, making it the closest of all statewide races. This was his victory statement: “We knew it wouldn’t be easy. They were strong, but we were stronger. They were tough, but we were tougher. After...

The California Secretary of State website has complete election results for yesterday’s elections across California. By clicking here, you can access the breakdown of the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction, in which Tom Torlakson won a second term. The statewide result is at the top, and below it are the county-by-county results. Click on...