At his final appearance before LA Unified’s Committee of the Whole yesterday, chief lobbyist Edgar Zazueta introduced his successor — Leilani Yee. “I am terribly nervous because I don’t feel like I’m good at public speaking, like Edgar is,” Yee told the board, her first appearance as the heir apparent to the job — the board still...

The effort to find a consensus candidate to follow Ramon Cortines into the superintendent’s office is playing out as difficult issues sometimes do in LA Unified, with good intentions undermined by political pandering and a bit of disingenuousness. While Steve Zimmer, the board president, has set in motion a thoughtful and reasonable approach to the...

Scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as the Nation’s Report Card, were released today, and LA Unified’s overall performance took a slight dip — same as scores in California and the nation. It was the first time scores slipped for the district and California since the state’s students started taking the test...

By Joshua Leibner As LAUSD searches for a new Superintendent, there has been a call not to “politicize” the process by people who mysteriously or calculatingly believe that the job itself isn’t political. Well let’s disabuse everyone of that notion right now. There is nothing in human experience more political than Education. Whatever education you and I...

As LA Unified school board president Steve Zimmer pleads for more involvement with the public for the superintendent search, the board voted down yet another effort to give the community greater influence in the selection process. It was the latest example of how the district is urging the public to play a role in the...

Attorneys representing families of students who said they have been abused by teachers and principals at LAUSD protested outside the school headquarters Tuesday morning, carrying signs that read, “LAUSD Bullies Children to Drop Lawsuits,” “Don’t be Silenced” and “Stop LAUSD Abuse.” “The abuse in the school system continues, and the district should do something about...

A majority responding to the latest LA School Report poll said the biggest challenge facing the new LA Unified superintendent is the Broad Foundation’s charter expansion plan, which could drain enrollment. More than 50 percent of respondents chose it as No. 1. The second most popular answer expressed a bit of cynicism, as 18 percent chose: “Yikes,...

For the first time, LA Unified school officials can track former students as they are released from juvenile halls and detention camps to help reintegrate them into the public schools. In this first year of the program, the district has identified 1,067 students who are being returned to the school population, some of them as...

By Nicholas Melvoin In decrying the recently leaked memo outlining a plan to create more high-quality public charter schools in our city, LAUSD School Board President Steve Zimmer said: “This is not an all-kids plan or an all-kids strategy…it’s very explicitly a some-kids strategy, a strategy that some kids will have a better education at a publicly-funded school…[t]he conversation should be...

LA Unified board will consider outside superintendent search committee A group of civic leaders has pressed the school board repeatedly on the issue. Los Angeles Times, by Howard Blume LAUSD’s building program transforming neighborhoods An ambitious construction program by L.A.’s Unified School District has dramatically altered the look of several of the city’s neighborhoods in...