Check out this visual breakdown of suspension and discipline rates in school districts across the country, via EdWeek. The positive takeaway is that even three years ago (which is when the data used in this interactive was sampled), LAUSD’s rate of suspensions and expulsions was lower than in many other school districts in the nation. While...

Mayor Villaraigosa wants the two mayoral candidates to focus more on education. “Education reform can’t be a footnote on a campaign mailer or fodder for an attack ad,” said Villaraigosa in his speech last night. Sensing some sort of political opportunity, candidate Eric Garcetti has challenged his opponent Wendy Greuel to an education debate. But LA Weekly‘s...

Responding to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Tuesday night challenge, Mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti is now calling for a May debate with opponent Wendy Greuel that would be focused solely on education. “We agree that education has to be seriously debated in this campaign,” said Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman in an email. “That’s why today we are calling on Controller...

Outgoing Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is scheduled to deliver his final State of the City address at UCLA tonight, and he plans to use the speech to criticize mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel on their education plans. Villaraigosa spokesperson Peter Sanders told the LA Times that the mayor will “take to task”...

In a wide-ranging Scholastic Administrator interview, LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy talks about the fight to make student achievement a meaningful part of teacher evaluations, his hopes for the $80 million that will be freed up if LAUSD gets a waiver from some of the burdensome provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind, and how he sees...

Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., the decision of the parents over the fate of 24th Street Elementary School is scheduled to be announced at a park near the school. The decision will be based on a vote of the 369 parents who signed the original parent trigger petition, according to the LA Weekly.  Whichever of the...

While a recent Daily News headline described LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan’s new “teacher jail” proposal as an “overhaul” of the current system, the resolution is probably best described as an effort at streamlining the process. Slated for a vote at next Tuesday’s Board meeting, the Galatzan resolution would shorten the time it takes to inform teachers what...

A new report released by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project adds to a growing collection of data that makes the case against using suspensions and so-called “zero tolerance” policies to discipline middle and high school students. The new report, which looked at middle and high schools across the country, finds significant discipline gaps between white, black,...

What kind of fancy new technology can LAUSD preschools expect with the recent $7  million plan in security upgrades approved by the school board? It turns out that the preschools already have a basic security system in place , so the new funds will be used to modernize the schools that could use an upgrade or to...

Last week, the Coalition for School Reform announced a new spokesperson would be taking over for the May 21 runoff between District 6 candidates Monica Ratliff and Antonio Sanchez. The reform-oriented independent expenditure committee has also fired up its Twitter feed (@ReformLAUSD), begun training a new set of campaign organizers (pictured), and announced its first voter...