Ryan Smith, director of education programs and policy at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, has been named one of Education Week‘s Ten People Who Are Changing Education Today — an annual list of under-35 reformers and innovators who might not yet be on your radar but should (or soon will) be. According to his LinkedIn, Smith...

The LAUSD School Board captured media attention from around the world on Tuesday when it unanimously awarded Apple a $30 million contract to purchase iPads for students and teachers in 47 schools. The Wall St. Journal, Mashable, and Newser all got in on the action. The British tabloid The Daily Mail found time for the story with the headline: “EVERY school child in...

Political news site Politico is reporting that US Senate hopeful Cory Booker has hired Obama campaign veteran Addisu Demissie (pictured) as his campaign manager. As you may recall, Demissie’s Sacramento-based firm 50+1 was hired to field work during the LAUSD school board election primaries, in which the Coalition outspent the union-endorsed candidates but only won one of three...

A couple of odds things happened towards the end of the School Board’s late-night meeting on Tuesday: Around 8:00 pm, as seven weary Board members were debating a proposal put forth by Board member Steve Zimmer calling on the district and state to bring greater transparency to the parent trigger signature-gathering process, Superintendent John Deasy...

KPCC’s Adolfo Guzman-Lopez has been sending out tweets about this morning’s conference on the district’s academic requirements. For example: @DrDeasyLAUSD taking part in conf. on 2016 requirement that HS seniors graduate #UC ready #AGForAll Top schools at #LAUSD falling short of 8 yr old A-G policy: 64% of grads at LA Center For Enriched Studies were UC ready in 2011 #LAUSD board...

During Tuesday’s seemingly endless meeting, the LAUSD School Board postponed Board member Tamar Galatzan’s resolution to have new State education funds flow to schools with large numbers of low-income and English language learning students and approved Board member Bennett Kayser’s resolution calling for the district to hire more staff across the board. The votes seemed like...

One adjective keeps coming up during interviews with education advocates and insiders about Joan Sullivan: Determined. As the Deputy Mayor for Education in Los Angeles for the last three years, Sullivan was determined to keep Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s education agenda moving forward, say those who’ve worked with her — despite political and policy setbacks, budget cuts,...

On Thursday morning, Supt. Deasy, Board member Zimmer and policy analysts from Alliance for a Better Community (ABC) and UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access (IDEA) will gather to discuss a new report on the status of the A-G program. Passed eight years ago, the “A-G” resolution (a reference to graduation requirements needed to...