Despite persistent concerns about teachers sexually harassing or abusing students in the classroom, only slightly more than a third of the teachers and other school personnel currently in LA Unified’s so-called “teacher jail” have been accused of sexual misconduct, according to the district’s latest accounting. Almost the same number are facing accusations of “violence.” As of...

The Senate passed a rewrite of the expired No Child Left Behind law yesterday with broad, bipartisan support. The George W. Bush-era law is controversial due to the high-stakes standardizing testing it ushered in, and the Senate’s bill would strip away much of the federal government’s test-and-punish powers. The bipartisan support it received is in...

By Caitlin Moran These days, parent-teacher associations are about more than bake sales and art projects. Individual regions and councils tackle concerns that range from cyber-bullying to achievement gaps and from the importance of early reading skills to including families that speak a language other than English at home. Laura Bay says she’s ready to...

A majority of American school districts have no policies protecting LGBT students from bullying, with California also coming in on the low-end, according to a new report that looked at the anti-bulliing policies of districts across the nation. The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) analyzed the policies of 13,000 districts in all 50 states...

Acknowledging the challenges facing new teachers with the aim of helping them have long careers, LA Unified is offering classes this month to help freshly-minted teachers learn how to deal with stress. The district is offering a the New Teacher Summer Institute, a five-day series of workshops, with about 1,800 teachers expected to take the courses....

Despite widespread praise for his leadership of LA Unified, including standing ovations at recent school board meetings, Superintendent Ramon Cortines finds himself facing a familiar adversary, a veteran district employee who is now accusing the district of firing him in retaliation for his past lawsuits against Cortines. Scot Graham, who accused Cortines of sexual harassment in three previous lawsuits,...

By Emily Deruy High schools across the country are taking what might seem like a counterintuitive approach to educating some of their most at-risk students. They’re enrolling them in college before they even graduate from high school. A new report from the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy suggests that dual-enrollment programs, where students take classes...

While LA Unified has taken aggressive actions to fix two of its highest-profile computer technology initiatives — MiSiS and the iPad program — it has all but ignored its primary communications tool to the public — its website. In a word, it’s a mess. Clicking on LAUSD.net to find current information and answers to specific...