The LA Unified school board is entering one of its most crucial periods of the year, meeting again tomorrow to deliberate a change at the top, the on-going contract negotiations with the teachers union and a solution to a range of scheduling problems at Jefferson High School. Nothing is more urgent than what happens to...

State and LA Unified officials have met with teachers and administrators at Jefferson High School to construct a plan for fixing scheduling problems plaguing the school since the academic year began in August. Now the hard part: getting the problems fixed. The meeting was scheduled as a direct result of a temporary restraining order issued...

For the first time Los Angeles area parents tomorrow will have a chance to explore school choice options at a convention-style event downtown called ChoicesExpo. The gathering, which is expected to attract a crowd of as large as 8,000, is intended to help parents learn more about the variety of school options available to their...

In the latest disagreement between contract negotiators for LA Unified and the teachers union, UTLA, the district says the teachers’ latest salary demand would cost way more than the district can afford while the union president charged that the district could afford it, if the district had the right spending priorities. The new demand of...

Via EdSource | By Louis Freedberg Enrollments in teacher preparation programs in California are continuing to decline at a precipitous rate, according to new figures from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. In the 2012-13 school year, the last year for which figures are available, enrollments in teacher preparation programs dropped to 19,933 – down 53 percent from...

When California’s first set of “Parent Trigger” schools in Adelanto Unified and LA Unified were taken over in 2013, the expectation was that a once failing school could turn innovative teaching and learning methods into academic improvement. Advocates of the controversial law argued that that an overhaul was required for progress. Short of parent testimonials, advocates...

* UPDATED Officials from LA Unified and Jefferson High School met for several hours today as they began to address the issues that have led to students at the school losing instruction time over scheduling problems. The meeting came in direct response to a ruling yesterday by a state judge that requires state and district...

Community groups supportive of Superintendent John Deasy have sent a second letter requesting a meeting with the LA Unified school board to discuss Deasy’s annual performance review. In a letter sent yesterday to board President Richard Vladovic, the groups chided him for being unresponsive to their concerns about the lack of transparency in the evaluation...