By Owen Phillips | National Public Radio Every year, thousands of fresh-faced teachers are handed the keys to a new classroom, given a pat on the back and told, “Good luck!” Over the next five years, though, nearly half of those teachers will transfer to a new school or leave the profession altogether — only...

They’re off… and spending. Over the last 10 days the California Charter School Association political action committee has resumed pumping in money to help Ref Rodriguez win the District 5 seat on the LA Unified school board in the May 19 runoff. The group has spent $18,347 on two flier mailings and one phone banking session....

With 154 schools under his supervision, Robert Bravo can never be in as many places as he wants or talk to as many educators as he’d like. But every Thursday, Bravo reaches hundreds of teachers and principals from around the district, and even some from as far away as Pakistan and Russia, with his weekly...

By Steve Lopez | The Los Angeles Times They meet on Mondays at lunch. They remove their earbuds, hide their smartphones and communicate without the aid of electronic devices. They are the coolest kids at Mendez High School in Boyle Heights. They are the Reading Club. “This is truly the biggest club on campus,” said...

Despite claims by Superintendent Ramon Cortines that LA Unified could lose $171 million in federal funding without an agreement with the teachers union on a teacher evaluation system, state officials say the money may not be at risk, at all. For weeks, Cortines has urged UTLA to accept a proposal with a three-level overall teacher...

The LA Unified School Board’s Successful School Climate Committee got an update on the district’s diversion program, not only with statistics but also with a student who said it had changed his life and his mother, who said she “thanks God” for it. The program, which has been in effect since the beginning of the...

A mediator from the state’s labor board met for the first time yesterday with negotiators from LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, to move contract negotiations forward. But the result was a gulf between the sides that remains wide as ever. How wide? “At this time, the union’s economic demands remain $774 million dollars...

The LA teachers union, UTLA, has decided to endorse LA Unified school board President Richard Vladovic in his reelection bid for the District 7 board seat. While it’s his third run for the seat, it’s the first time the teachers are throwing support his way, making him that rare candidate who has won the endorsements...

As California considers emergency legislation to solve the drought crisis, LA Unified is working with city and state agencies to reduce water consumption across campuses by ripping out water-sucking grass lawns in place of native plants, swapping outdated toilets for low-flush units and recycling gray water throughout neighboring school communities. As the largest district in...

Four Democratic California lawmakers joined forces yesterday to promote new bills aimed at creating more stringent regulation of the state’s charter schools. If passed, the package of bills would bring big changes to the charter schools, including a requirement that they be run as non-profits, that charters be considered government entities and that all of...