By Marco Petruzzi In today’s world of frenzied news alerts from the D.C. bubble, speculation about the new administration and persisting education debates make it easy to forget that out here in the real world, education leaders and local communities are quietly moving forward adapting new federal guidelines designed to help ensure access to a quality...

After suffering years of defeat through failed legislation, a high-profile lawsuit and a ballot proposition, advocates of teacher tenure reform in California will make another attempt with a bill introduced Monday that this time was crafted with wide input from teachers statewide. The proposed change, extending the probationary period from two to three years, would...

A black-and-white photograph of President John F. Kennedy hangs on the wall of Nick Melvoin’s small office, which is the nerve center of his campaign headquarters in Venice’s trendy tech neighborhood. Kennedy’s on the phone, one hand covering part of his pained face. Melvoin, 31, often looks up from his folding-table desk at the iconic photo...

While some schools may wrestle with the best way to handle Snapchat on campus, Saint Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif., has much bigger Snapchat-driven decisions: what to do with the millions it netted from an early investment in the massively popular disappearing-image app. The private Brothers of Holy Cross institution invested $15,000 in...

A statewide public school rating system is available today, but some find it difficult to understand. Rather than having a simple one-number score, the new California School Dashboard Report uses a series of colors to rate various aspects of each school. Some community groups say that makes it hard for parents to compare schools. Former school board member...

California’s new school accountability report, or Dashboard, was launched Wednesday morning by the state Board of Education, and it’s supposed to more accurately represent the success and progress of California public schools. But it’s in beta-test mode right now, according to the state officials launching the Dashboard. For now, it’s only available in English and Spanish, with...

Giving her final fiscal report at LA Unified, Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly offered some good news about the budget for the nation’s second-largest school district. The district will be in the black at the end of this school year and next year, she reported to the school board Tuesday, and while a deficit is...

Kelly Gonez widened her lead in District 6 and Nick Melvoin narrowed Steve Zimmer’s lead in District 4, according to an updated vote count Tuesday in last week’s LA Unified school board primary. The lineup for the May 16 runoff remains the same. The primary election results aren’t final as LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean...

Local school boards can be prone to blaming their woes on decisions coming out of Sacramento or saying their hands are tied by the California Board of Education. But the state no longer pulls the strings and local districts wield significant power, a California education advocate says. “The days of micromanaging are gone,” said Bill...