While LA School Report has been paying close attention to the elections taking place at UTLA, the nations second largest teachers union, the competition hasn’t attracted much outside attention – that is until recently. Now, education blogger, Anthony Cody at Edweek-Teacher, has launched a series of Question-and-Answers with the 10 candidates vying for union president, each being asked...

Another LA Unified school is under threat of closing. The Academy of Environmental and Social Policy (ESP) is hosting a Back to School/Save our School event tonight to help fend off efforts to shut it down or relocate it because of shrinking enrollment, As one of the district’s Partnership for Los Angeles schools, it is...

Via KPCC | By Annie Gilbertson William Johnston, who was superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District during the 1970s, is urging officials to stop using bond funds to buy iPads – leading an oversight committee to take up the issue Thursday. “I believe the current purchase of iPads with school bonds is illegal,”...

LA Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, is getting the largest amount of any school district in California in the latest round of funds from Prop 39, the 2012 California Clean Energy Jobs Act. The measure makes changes to corporate income taxes, providing $550 million annually for five fiscal years beginning with the...

Recent campaign appearances by Alex Caputo-Pearl at schools around LA Unified have ignited a dispute among candidates for UTLA offices who say election rules — such as they are  — are being applied unfairly. The conflict has also brought into focus how misunderstood the rules seem to be. The source of the infighting is what...

Plaintiffs today in Vergara v. California, a case challenging state teacher laws, submitted their opposition to the defendants’ motion for judgment, which was filed with the California Superior Court last week. Defendants are asking the court to throw out the case for a lack of evidence. The plaintiffs’ response emphasizes the “compelling and overwhelming evidence” that...

LA Unified took another step today toward completing the roster of parents who will serve on an advisory panel charged with helping set spending goals for new state money coming into the district through the Local Control Funding Formula. In recent days, meetings of parents and guardians at the district’s five Educational Service Center areas...

The teachers union is taking its demands to the school yard. On Feb. 28, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) is staging a coordinated leafleting campaign, directed at parents during drop-off, to fight for more pay and increased hiring. Dubbed, “Time for Kids” the campaign is set to take place before the first bell on Friday....

George McKenna, a former LA Unified administrator, has become the first of thirteen school board candidates vying in the special election for the District 1 seat to submit a nominating petition. The Los Angeles City Clerk’s office requires at least 500 signatures to qualify for a position on the ballot. The filing period, which began...

The LA Unified school board holds a committee meeting today, chaired by LAUSD trustee Monica Ratliff. Among other items, the Curriculum Instruction and Assessment Committee is set to discuss the new ‘smarter balanced‘ assessments which will be administered this year on computers and tablets, taking the place of traditional standardized tests. 1:00 p.m.: Curriculum, Instruction...