District 6 is an open seat, as current board member Nury Martinez is leaving the school board to run for City Council. Both UTLA and the education reform community are likely to pick candidates and dump money into independent expenditure campaigns supporting them. But who will they pick? One possible candidate for ed reformers in...

Last week, Governor Jerry Brown signed no less than 14 education bills, according to his website. They included a law that re-works how principals are evaluated, and one that makes it harder to expel a student. He also vetoed two bills.  Below the break is the full list.

Who: A self-appointed caucus of progressive teachers within the 38,000- member United Teachers Los Angeles union. What: Currently holds more than 25 percent of the 350 seats in the UTLA House of Representatives, and helped elect a reform-friendly UTLA president last year. Has inspired similar factions in other districts.. via Atlantic Magazine: The Education Upstarts. Other...

Launched last month, LA School Report site has been taking the LA education scene  by storm. Thanks to everyone for all the great responses and ideas. Now we’re looking for another writer/reporter/blogger/researcher to join the team and help us make the site even better. It’s a paid, half-time position. Hours are flexible, however, candidates must be...

Most Angelenos don’t realize it, but the local primary election is just five months away. Even fewer know that in addition the Mayor and City Council, the March 5 ballot will include three school board seats. Three, count ’em, three (out of seven). But why should anyone be paying attention? There aren’t even any candidates...

Last Friday, UTLA put on an event to demonstrate support for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and held a conference call with CTU delegates who were then still on strike (see Support spreads for CTU Socialist Worker).  Excitement among union leaders and rank-and-file teachers was high.  Accountability-minded reformers were grumbling that the district had given away too...

Just about everyone who watches LAUSD is scratching their heads wondering just what board member Steve Zimmer is doing — lately more than ever. He’s introduced two incredibly polarizing motions recently– one to reject the use of Academic Growth Over Time in teacher evaluations, and one to provide greater oversight for charter schools and, more...

On Monday, representatives from LAUSD and UTLA met again to discuss teacher evaluations — the 15th session since July 11, when a judge ordered the two sides to develop a new system for evaluating teachers and principals that includes some measure of pupil progress. Superintendent John Deasy told Teresa Watanabe of the LA Times, “I...

Parent activist Scott Folsom (4 LA Kids) suggests that there could be a big change in the makeup of the LAUSD board after the Spring elections — and is throwing his own name into the ring as a candidate (again). “History tells us school boards prefer to appoint their own superintendent when their membership changes,” writes the Deasy...

We got an interesting email in response to our post about LAUSD’s low math scores from a  Cochran Middle School math teacher named Rustum Jacob, who offers two additional reasons why scores are as low as they are:  more 9th grade students being placed into Geometry, and no real alternatives for 9th graders who aren’t...