While laid-off teachers and ardent school reform critics may be all aglow over LAUSD School Board member Steve Zimmer’s “Pacino-esque” speech on behalf of the proposed teacher hiring/ class size reduction resolution last week, perhaps it’s not quite yet time for anyone to declare victory. Last Tuesday, the LAUSD Board debated and ultimately passed a...

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan seems to be trying to turn over a new leaf with California Gov. Jerry Brown after years of tense disagreements, notes EdSource Today after Duncan praised Brown’s new funding formula at an event Friday night in San Francisco. Even more immediately important for LAUSD, Duncan sounded sympathetic to the newly resubmitted...

Here’s the Education Week interview with United Way’s Ryan Smith (pictured) we mentioned last week. As you’ll see, the piece starts off with a few sentences about LAUSD’s challenges (high dropout rates, low scores compared to other big city school systems) and then moves on to Smith’s background (he’s a Native Angeleno) and views (very...

Here are three good reasons to read the excellent profile of labor leader Maria Elena Durazo that graced the front page of Sunday’s LA Times: Even though Durazo’s LA County of Federation of Labor backed the losing the Mayoral candidate, Wendy Greuel, it still has backed — at some point or another — nearly ever City Councilman. Dan...

Some members of the School Board have sent Superintendent John Deasy a letter asking him to clarify comments deriding a Board-passed spending resolution and indicating his plans to include a targeted funding resolution that was not passed by the Board. “They can’t stop me from doing it,” Deasy said in comments made to LA School Report earlier this...

Education Secretary Arne Duncan earlier this week announced that the federal US Department of Education would allow California and other states some additional time and flexibility during the implementation of the rigorous new Common Core standards and assessments, according to today’s EdSource. If California takes advantage of the offered flexibility, teachers and schools will get relief from...