With the signing of AB 420, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday made California the first state in the nation to limit suspensions and expulsions for the reason of “willful defiance,” a term critics call a catch-all phrase that can be hard to define but includes such categories as talking back, refusing assignments or violating the...

As the LA Unified school board prepares to meet privately tomorrow to discuss how to evaluate Superintendent John Deasy in his performance review next month, it might be instructive to have a look at the board’s previous evaluations of him to understand what criteria they used. Except for one thing: They don’t exist. None of...

Via LA Times | by Jim Newton There’s a storm cloud gathering over Los Angeles politics these days, and the man at its center is schools Supt. John Deasy. In office since 2010, Deasy has fenced with his bosses, the seven-member school board, almost from the get-go. Lately, however, the situation has deteriorated: United Teachers Los...

Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews took an in-depth look at Los Angeles County this month when he applied his Challenge Index rankings and came up with a list of the top 75 private and public schools. The results may surprise some, as Mathews noted that only six schools on the list are private, and...

Uncertainties surround LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy. He doesn’t see eye-to-eye with board members on a host of issues. Questions are swirling about whether he’ll quit or be fired. That was last year. But here he is again, weeks away from his next performance review, and not much has changed. This time, Deasy finds himself...

LA Unified’s Beyond the Bell program received some national recognition last week when it was honored with the prestigious Hoyt S. Vandenberg Award from the Air Force Association. The program was the first educational institution to receive the award, which for 66 years has recognized achievements by individuals or institutions in the U.S. Air Force,...

A new report from Child Trends took a close look at Hispanic children in America and found a “complex picture.” The 35-page report examined all facets of the lives of Hispanic children, including education, and said some of its findings are “familiar while others are less well-known.” Overall, while Hispanic students have made significant gains over...

LA Unified has won a $13 million federal grant intended to expose low-income students to college. The grant will span over seven years and benefit 2,000 students currently in the sixth- and seventh-grades, according to City News Service. The schools involved in the grant are Berendo Middle School, the Helen Bernstein Complex, Le Conte Middle...

The LA Unified school board’s sudden decision to hold a closed door session next week grew out of a Sept. 17 email request from Monica Ratliff to Board President Richard Vladovic, in which she expressed her desire to “discuss the current personell (sic) matter.” The reference was to Superintendent John Deasy, whose performance evaluation is...

Getting safely to and from school can be tricky in a rough neighborhood. To make it easier, City Attorney Mike Feuer launched a pilot program earlier this month at four LA Unified elementary schools, aimed at keeping kids safe. The Neighborhood School Safety Program targets schools in areas with high “quality of life” crimes, including...