* UPDATED A new Field poll shows that the race for state Superintendent of Public Education is tightening. Some might say it’s now nip and tuck. A survey conducted over the last two weeks in August of 467 people who said they were likely to vote in November found that the incumbent, Marshall Tuck, a former...

The LA Unified School Board returns tomorrow with a full agenda although a lot of the juicy stuff will be discussed in closed session. In addition to the usual topics — personnel issues and ongoing litigation — the board will review labor negotiations, which at this point is down to the on-going talks with the...

Via EdWeek | by Carl Finer As a veteran urban educator and career union member, I care deeply about both my students and building the systems to ensure that all students and teachers have what they need to be successful. In the legal precedent laid out in the controversial Vergara decision relating to teacher tenure...

Principal Steven Martinez of John Burroughs Middle School in Hancock Park figured the worst that could happen is that his school’s new iPads wouldn’t connect to the Apple TVs that staff bought to enhance lesson plans. He figured wrong. On Friday, he learned that his school is not getting iPads at all. “I don’t understand what’s...

Governor Jerry Brown and his Republican challenger, Neel Kashkari, spent a few testy minutes in their debate last night talking about public education. Their exchange largely focused on the recent decision by Brown, as a loser in Vergara vs. California, to appeal the ruling, which struck down laws protecting teacher employment rights. Brown was asked...

Ryan Smith, whose work as Director of Education Programs and Policy for United Way of Greater Los Angeles helped improve the educational prospects for students of color and those living in poverty, is leaving his post to become executive director of Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based non-profit focused on many of the same objectives. In his...

Lydia Gutierrez, a candidate for the LA Unified school board seat next year, says a former campaign manager misrepresented her positions in speaking to LA School Report earlier this week. Gutierrez disputed statements from Jose Gonzalez, who identified himself as one of her campaign managers, saying she would not vote to fire Superintendent John Deasy...

After months of bargaining talks with LA Unified, the teachers union, UTLA, today submitted its first contract demand within the course of current negotiations. In a document submitted to the board this morning, the union called for discussions of various subjects, including salaries, teacher evaluations and discipline at its next bargaining sessions, according to a...

Via NY Times | by Farhad Manjoo Halfway through the last school year, Leila Campbell, a young humanities teacher at a charter high school in Oakland, Calif., received the results from a recent survey of her students. On most measures, Ms. Campbell and her fellow teachers at the Aspire Lionel Wilson Preparatory Academy were scoring...

Under withering criticism over the iPad program, a new student-tracking computer system and discordant relations with the teachers union, LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy said today that the attacks feel politically motivated at the expense of his agenda to improve the lives of district students. “I serve at the pleasure of the board,” he said...