The LA Unified Bond Oversight Committee today agreed to approve another $25 million in bond fund spending to help the district fix MiSiS problems and equip schools with computers for standardized testing in the Spring. A team of district officials, including Superintendent Ramon Cortines, made lengthy presentations to the nine member committee, insisting that in...

* UPDATED If you are required to do it, is it still “volunteering”? That is the question at the heart of a report issued yesterday by Public Advocates, which researched 555 charter schools in California and found that 30 percent of them require parents to do work at the school for a set quota of...

Via The Huffington Post | By David Lyell In my 13 years of teaching at over 100 schools within LAUSD, K-12, regular and special education, students have asked me this question more times than I care to remember. While some question the commitment and contribution of substitute teachers, the tired cliche of a Substitute Teacher...

El Rancho Unified, a small, majority Latino school district of a dozen schools in Pico Rivera, is way head of LA Unified in setting up an Ethnic Studies program, which the LA Unified board approved just this week. By next year in El Rancho, a high school course in Ethnic Studies will be required for...

Earlier this month, Arnold Viramontes, an outside expert hired by former superintendent John Deasy, issued a report to LA Unified that was a scathing indictment of the new MiSiS system, finding that “red conditions” arose early and should have signified “No Go.” This week, in it’s weekly newsletter, the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) expressed disappointment with...

The long awaited Inspector General report on LA Unified’s botched MiSiS program found the development and implementation of the student data management system “grossly inadequate,” lacking sufficient resources, oversight and management. While the report, requested by board member Tamar Galatzan, took three months to complete, the overall findings by the district’s Inspector General, Ken Bramlett, largely echoed observations...

Jury selection resumed today in the Miramonte Elementary School sex-abuse civil case against LA Unified while settlement proceed but not yet with any results. The district school board met in a closed session yesterday reportedly to discuss a settlement offer that was made by the plaintiffs, who are former students and parents at Miramonte suing...

In a case that has implications for millions of public employees in more than two dozen states, a group of California teachers is planning to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case against the California Teachers Association (CTA) over union dues. The case involves a state’s right to require public employees to pay...

The LA Unified school board last night took the first step in making ethnic studies a required course for graduation by 2019, making it the second district in the country to adopt such a measure. The resolution, proposed by board members Bennett Kayser, George McKenna and Steve Zimmer passed with Tamar Galatzan casting the only vote against...

L.A. Unified discusses possible settlement in Miramonte case The LA Unified board discussed a possible settlement offer Tuesday involving a former Miramonte Elementary teacher accused of abusing students. Los Angeles Times LAUSD head Cortines to ask for $53 million in bonds to repair MiSiS LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines said he plans to ask the school...