Via the Sacramento Bee | By Dan Walters Years – even decades – of intense academic and political debate over closing the stubbornly wide “achievement gap” that separates Latino and black students from their white and Asian classmates are reaching a climactic point. This week, the State Board of Education is poised to approve hotly...

The LA Unified School Board made two major decisions today that will go a long way toward shaping the months ahead. The six members green-lighted Phase 2 of the iPad plan, ensuring enough tablets for standardized testing in the Spring, and they approved the appointment of a non-voting representative to serve District 1 until later...

Minutes after voting against a motion to place an interim board member in the vacant seat on the LA Unified board, Bennett Kayser changed his mind, allowing the process to go forward. As a result, he broke the 3-3 deadlock and changed it to a 4-2 vote. A committee will form under Steve Zimmer to develop the parameters of...

An effort to fill the LA Unified board’s vacancy failed today when a 3-3 vote doomed an effort to set a process leading to an appointment. As a result, unless the board takes up the matter again at another time, the seat left open by the death of Marguerite LaMotte will remain unfilled until a...

According to the law, the LA Unified School Board cannot appoint a ‘voting member’ to serve temporarily on the board. That’s according to the legal team at LA Unified which is set to make a presentation today, in response to a request from the school board. According to the document – which outlines the options...

A public memorial service for LA Unified Board Member Marguerite LaMotte, who died last month, will be held  at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Washington Prep High School. The address is 10860 S. Denker Ave. LaMotte served 10 years representing District 1 on the board. She died attending a conference in San Diego. Previous Post: Marguerite LaMotte, Long-Serving Member...

Will the LA Unified school board vote (again) to move forward with its commitment to buy enough iPADs for students to take their year-end assessments? Is a motion to appoint an ‘interim’ board member to the vacant school board seat actually, well, legal? And how will that $7.8 billion in bond money for school repairs...

With the State Board of Education meeting later this week to set a new funding plan for public education, LAUSD officials today sought ideas from community-based groups for putting the money to best use. Speaking to the representatives at the downtown office of the California Endowment, Superintendent John Deasy applauded the plan, known as the Local Control...