With around 50,000 students participating, the first Los Angeles Summer of Learning is being hailed as a success by officials involved with the program. Modeled after a similar program launched last year in Chicago, Summer of Learning provided access for LA Unified students to 100 learning opportunities, online and in person, at LA parks, libraries,...

While LA Unified is still wrestling with the final kinks in MiSiS, it is already developing MiSiS 2.0. “This time we’re involving users in the conversation early on,” Ron Chandler, the district’s Chief Information Officer, told the school board’s Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Committee yesterday. As for the current system, which tracks student progress and...

As a boy, Kevin Murchie saw the award-winning film “Stand and Deliver,” the true story of Jaime Escalante, the Garfield Senior High math teacher who inspired his Latino students to overcome gang violence and poverty in east Los Angeles. A Caucasian boy growing up in the upper class community of La Cañada Flintridge, Murchie said there...

The LAUSD Curriculum and Instruction committee will meet today at 4:00 p.m. In addition to a variety of items on the agenda and in the supporting committee materials, an update on the MiSiS project will be presented. For the meeting agenda, click here. There are five supporting materials for the meeting: California Emerging Technology fund – click here,...

During his first State of the Union speech at the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) leadership conference last week, President Alex Caputo-Pearl promised that the union was “gearing up for this fight” as he works to negotiate a new contract with LA Unified. Near the end of his remarks, as if to prove he wasn’t just talking tough, he announced...

LA Unified’s Immigrant Guidance Assessment & Placement Center saw long lines when it opened its doors in August, but concerns that the influx of students would be a problem for the district to handle appear unfounded. During its first month of operation following the summer recess, the center processed 360 children from Aug. 12 to...

* UPDATED The deadline for LA Unified students’ receiving free and reduced priced lunch is tomorrow, leaving anyone who has not renewed an application facing the possibility of running a tab with the district. Making matters worse, school site officials say a bug in the district’s new student data system, MiSiS, has made it difficult...

A record five LA Unified teachers have been named Los Angeles County Teachers of the Year for 2014-15. The honorees are among 16 teachers in the county to receive the award, and they are all now in the running for the California Teacher of the Year award, according to a district press release. “These teachers...

Andrew Thomas came to the conclusion the LA Unified school board had grown too distant from issues at the school level. He tried one approach at improving things, serving as a member of the Parents Advisory Committee, which was suppose to help shape spending. Not satisfied that it had much impact, Thomas is now running...

In his first State of the Union speech as the United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) president, Alex Caputo-Pearl delivered a careful, balanced address at the union’s annual Leadership Conference on Friday night, leaving most of the fiery rhetoric to one of his predecessors, Wayne Johnson, who energetically recalled the 1989 strike, which he led. While Caputo-Pearl...