The hyper-cute daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes is going to enroll at Avenues, an entirely new K-12 private (for-profit!) school being opened this fall in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC (right near the High Line, if you want to impress your friends). All this via the NY Post: Suri Cruise to attend new Chelsea school....

A shocking (and graphic) Courthouse News Service story from last week details many of the allegations made by Scot Graham against former LAUSD superintendent Ramon Cortines, including, perhaps most damning to the district, that his claims were never investigated “due to the district’s “culture of sexual abuse, stealth and secrecy.” Graham also claims that Cortines “had targeted other...

There was a time when Green Dot Public Schools founder Steve Barr — the man responsible for the 2008 hostile takeover of Locke High School and a frequent critic of the teachers union and the Board — was seen by many as the barbarian at the gate. Now, Barr has a daughter in 2nd grade at Ivanhoe...

Here’s the cover for Michelle Rhee’s new book, coming out in January. It’s called “RADICAL: Fighting to Put Students First.”  Read a few more details here. Why should you care about Rhee? Her Sacramento-based organization, StudentsFirst, was involved in Ian Calderon’s successful state assembly primary race and Brian Johnson’s unsuccessful one, as well as various...

A call around to some education insiders suggests that the likelihood of parents targeting an LAUSD school for the so-called “parent trigger” aren’t clear — at least in the short term. That hasn’t stopped LAUSD parents from starting parent unions, however — the precursor to a possible trigger.  

School Board Member Nury Martinez has long been rumored to be planning a run for Tony Cardenas’ City Council District 6 seat, which will become vacant when Cardenas gets elected to U.S. Congress, which he is expected to do in a walk. This would set the stage for a fight for Martinez’s school board seat, and...

Ever wonder just how many TFA (Teach For America) teachers there are in LAUSD?  Sometimes it can seem like they (and their alumni) are everywhere.  Other times, they can be hard to find. Here are the latest numbers, via David Stanley, TFA LA executive director: Last year there were 260 first- and second-year teachers (about...

When former UTLA head A.J. Duffy helped found Apple Academy, a charter school, in 2011, it seemed like the ultimate case of a zebra changing his stripes. Nearly a year later, Duffy still gets quoted in the Times, but he’s no longer head of Apple, which didn’t enroll enough kids to justify his salary, and...

LAUSD’s social media director, Stephanie Abrams (pictured) has already been the subject of a smattering of news coverage and is featured in next month’s Scholastic Administrator magazine.   In the meantime one of Abrams’ biggest projects, a social media survey of the district, is out, and The Journal has some coverage.  Here’s LAUSD’s Tumblr announcement....

Prop 32 would have huge implications for LAUSD politics, drastically limiting the amount of money unions could spend on local races. In 2011, UTLA spent over $2 million on school board races. And at first it seems like a straightforward, partisan issue– Democrats and Unions vs. Republicans and rich guys. But one Democrat has stepped forward to support...