The Sacramento-based school advocacy group StudentsFirst recently hired Fabian Nunez in an effort to beef up its advocacy efforts in California. In a telephone interview last week, Nunez gave LA School Report his take on education politics in Sacramento, recent shifts in union priorities after last year’s controversial debate over teacher dismissals, and his vision for higher-performing...

After the symbolic “no confidence” vote by the Los Angeles teachers union last week, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy gave the LA Daily News his thoughts and described his plans to bring “youth rights” to all students in LA schools: Watch and read the full Deasy interview at LA Daily News; read LA School Report’s coverage of UTLA’s vote here.

Thursday’s LA Times editorial about the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluations around the country (Bill Gates’ warning on test scores) makes some valuable points about the dangers of rushed, half-baked teacher evaluation schemes that count test scores as more than half of a teacher’s evaluation (as is being done in some states and districts)....

District 6 School Board candidate Antonio Sanchez got nearly 44% of the vote in the March Primary — just 6 points shy of the 50 percent that would have given him an outright victory. So don’t expect any big changes in his May 21 runoff election with teacher Monica Ratliff. “We only need to capture...

Here are some extra charts to illustrate yesterday’s LA Weekly story about LAUSD’s strong emphasis on teacher accountability over the past couple of years. They show a rise in teacher dismissals and “unsatisfactory” ratings — even as the number of teachers in LAUSD has decreased by thousands. Click below for the charts.

The teachers union has been strangely silent about the parent trigger issue lately — even as different variations on the controversial school turnaround approach are being explored. In just the last few weeks, the parents of 24th St. have chosen a new “hybrid” plan that would leave the younger grades in the hands of LAUSD; the...

What LA’s next Mayor should do to help make the schools better has been on everyone’s minds this week, and KPCC interviewed three education leaders to get their views. Elise Buik, president of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, wants the mayor to help the district “replicate high-performance schools and transform low-performing schools more...

Teachers were expected to hand Superintendent John Deasy a vote of no confidence on Thursday night, given a combination of genuine animosity towards his approach and arm-twisting from United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA). But the margin was nothing short of astounding — 16,040 UTLA members (mostly teachers but also some other LAUSD employees), or...

We’re live-tweeting tonight’s debate between mayoral contenders Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel: [widgets_on_pages id=”Twitter Live Posts”]

Pass the time until tonight’s Greuel-Garcetti debate watching this video of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s final State of the City address at UCLA’s Royce Hall from earlier this week. You probably already know what he’s got to say, but it’s mildly interesting when Villaraigosa gets heckled (“Charter schools is not the answer!”). Click below.