Jan Price heard that computers were coming to her kindergarten classroom at Galt Elementary School in Lake Balboa in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. She was scared. “It’s time for me to retire,” Price remembered saying. “I can’t handle this. I’m not technical at all.” That was a year ago. Now, the 71-year-old...

By Jill Barshay For those of us who worry that Google might be making us stupid, and that, perhaps, technology and education don’t mix well, here’s a new study to confirm that anxiety. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) looked at computer use among 15-year-olds across 31 nations and regions, and found that students who...

Students from LA Unified’s independent charter schools outperformed their counterparts at traditional schools on the recent Smarter Balanced standardized tests in the number meeting and exceeding standards, according to a new analysis by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). The charter group found that the charter students scored nine percentage points higher in English language...

  * UPDATE A group of parents at Westwood Charter School fear that families are faking their addresses to enroll their children in the highly sought-after LA Unified-affiliated school. The parents were concerned that school enrollment is coming dangerously close to its maximum capacity. First priority for enrollment in such schools usually goes to local residents. When the...

A few days after the posh parties with the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Orlando Bloom, Ed Ruscha and Frank Gehry to celebrate the opening of the new Broad Museum, the LA Unified teachers union, UTLA, is planning a protest at the museum on Sunday, aimed at its namesake: Eli Broad, one of LA’s leading philanthropists. More specifically,...

By David Leonhardt The University of California is struggling with budget woes that have deeply affected campus life. Yet the system’s nine colleges still lead the nation in providing top-flight college education to the masses. At many other colleges, poor and truly middle-class students remain a distinct minority. Affluent students predominate at liberal-arts colleges like Oberlin and...

By arguing in court that a 14-year-old girl was partly responsible for her own sexual abuse at the hands of her teacher has not only brought LA Unified a string of negative press, it has backfired terribly and now bought on a new trial. The state Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial in...

Los Angeles Unified School District represents a “rare bright spot” in hiring of minority teachers in both district and charter schools, according to a study released yesterday from the Albert Shanker Institute comparing nine urban school districts. The study shows that as schools are getting higher levels of minority students, there are fewer minority teachers,...

* UPDATED A group of education experts and organizations supporting the state’s two largest teacher unions’ appeal of the Vergara lawsuit have filed amici curiae, or “friend of the court” briefs with the California Court of Appeals while former California Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger weighed in with their own briefs opposing the unions....

By Gary Walker The new Common Core state standardized test results are in, and they don’t look great for LAUSD. Nearly a year after the departure of Supt. John Deasy, the school district still awaits new permanent executive leadership. Traditional public school enrollment is declining as charter schools pick up more students and move into empty...