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A Note to our Readers: Let’s Keep the Comments Civil
As we grow and expand here at LA School Report, we hope to continue to bring helpful information and fresh perspectives on the important education challenges facing our city. While we know some readers don’t always agree with our coverage, we welcome all comments, both positive and critical, and we always encourage healthy debate and...
By LA School Report | September 30, 2013
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Local Groups to LA Unified Board: Let Schools Decide Spending
A broad coalition of more than 40 community and advocacy groups is jumping into LA Unified’s prolonged spending debate, urging the board to allow individual schools, rather than centralized administrators, to decide how to spend the billions of dollars coming into the district from Gov. Jerry Brown‘s Local Control Funding Formula program. Organized by the...
By Michael Janofsky | September 30, 2013
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State Education Data Made Easy
A neat interactive mapping widget called “States in Motion” has just been posted on EdSource. The map visualizes data like teacher salaries, student to teacher ratios, growth in enrollments and scores and compares it to other states. It’s the creation of Jeff Camp, who works with a nonprofit volunteer organization called Full Circle Fund.
By LA School Report | September 27, 2013
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LA Unified Budget Wars Return with the Usual Competing Visions
Competing visions for future spending will be on grand display again Tuesday when the LA Unified Board of Education meets to put Superintendent John Deasy’s budget plan to a vote (or not) and consider a competing resolution (or not) that would tell him how to spend the money. (See the agenda here.) Confusing? Welcome to Budgeting 101,...
By Hillel Aron | September 27, 2013
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Smart Phone App Helping LA Unified Clean Up, Fix Up
iPads are not the only technological gadget getting used inside LA Unified schools these days. A smartphone application called LAUSD Service Calls is enabling teachers, administrators, even parents to summon district personnel to fix all sorts of problems, such as graffiti, water leaks and broken tiles. The app functions on an iPhone, Blackberry and Android...
By Chase Niesner | September 26, 2013
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LA Unified Wants Student Hackers on an Anti-Hacking Panel
Los Angeles Unified will assemble a student committee to advise its response to the recent security breach of district-issued iPads by 185 high school students, Ron Chandler, the district’s chief information officer, said yesterday. The move is the district’s attempt to find a way to balance students’ desires to surf the web unfettered with the...
By Brenda Iasevoli | September 26, 2013
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iPads Hacked? ‘Surprised it Took This Long,’ Says Zimmer
At least one LA Unified school board member was hardly shocked to learn that students piloting the district’s iPad program had found a way to break through the firewall. “Of course it happened,” Steve Zimmer told LA School Report, throwing his hands up in the air as he left an event at Hollywood High School. “Frankly,...
By Vanessa Romo | September 25, 2013
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LA Unified Begins Job Search to Replace Jaime Aquino
The Los Angeles Unified School District has begun the search to replace Deputy Superintendent for Instruction Jamie Aquino, who announced a week and a half ago that he would resign at the end of the year. The job posting seeks to find “an accomplished and visionary educator with considerable experience aligning student and school needs with...
By Hillel Aron | September 25, 2013
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Matt Damon, Steve Zimmer: Ravitch’s BFFs in LA
LA Unified board member Steve Zimmer, who just spent a weekend with Superintendent John Deasy talking education policy in Washington D.C., is getting another side of the story next week when he hosts Diane Ravitch – and actor Matt Damon – at Occidental College. Zimmer is an adjunct instructor in Urban and Environmental Policy. Ravitch...
By Vanessa Romo | September 25, 2013
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Roosevelt High Students Find a Way to Hack Their iPads
Via The Los Angeles Times | By Howard Blume LA Unified officials have a new problem on their hands – because of what LA Unified students have in their hands: iPads. A week after getting their new digital devices, nearly 300 students at Roosevelt High School compromised the security designed to block users from accessing such websites...
By LA School Report | September 25, 2013