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NYC gets threat similar to LAUSD, but considers it a hoax

New York City schools also received an email terror threat today, according to various media reports. But unlike the LA Unified school district, which closed all of its campuses this morning, New York schools remained open today. In fact, New York leaders are cracking jokes about the situation as LA Unified officials are closing roughly 1,000...
By Craig Clough | December 15, 2015
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JUST IN: LA Unified closed due to ‘serious’ threat to schools

UPDATED All LAUSD schools were closed today due to a “serious threat” called into the district. The threat was not aimed at any specific school, but was judged credible enough for school officials to close all the campuses, which serve 643,000 students in 900 traditional and 200 charter schools. “This is a rare threat, we get...
By Mike Szymanski | December 15, 2015
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Committee examines English learner education shortcomings in CA

By Josh Dulaney Lawmakers and academics met Monday at Cal State Long Beach to discuss helping English-learner students in the state get a high school diploma and go on to college. The Assembly Education Committee convened in the CSULB Student Union to learn more about roughly 1.4 million English learners who make up 22 percent of...
By LA School Report | December 15, 2015
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LAUSD board drawing closer to picking new superintendent

As the year winds down, the the seven elected LAUSD school board members have pushed almost everything off their calendars except for picking the next district superintendent. The selection process continued for eight hours yesterday, ending at 5:30 pm with plans to resume the deliberations at 8:30 am tomorrow. While the board is winnowing its...
By Mike Szymanski | December 14, 2015
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The long good-bye: Cortines bids farewell (again) to LA Unified
This is the final week of school before winter break for the LA Unified school district, and it’s the remaining few days in office for Superintendent Ramon Cortines as he completes his final farewell tour. His last full workday was last Friday, and it included an emergency meeting with the Southern California Gas Company to...
By Mike Szymanski | December 14, 2015
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Commentary: Opportunity and Challenge in ‘No Child’ Rewrite

By Chris Hofmann President Obama last week signed the most important education legislation in over a decade, the long-awaited reauthorization of ESEA and No Child Left Behind. The provisions of the law will have a profound effect on what school is like for my class of 26 fourth graders and will reverberate throughout the everyday...
By Guest contributor | December 14, 2015
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Editorial: Compliments to Cortines for pursuing Esquith probe

By The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board When famed teacher Rafe Esquith was yanked from his fifth-grade classroom and an investigation was opened into possible sexual and financial misconduct, parents in the Los Angeles Unified School District— and the larger education world — gasped. Esquith was as iconic as he was iconoclastic. A winner of the National Medal...
By LA School Report | December 14, 2015
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What does NCLB rewrite mean for LAUSD? Maybe not so much

With President Obama‘s signing the rewrite of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law yesterday, a new era of federal and state education policy has been ushered in. While the new law, Every Child Achieves Act (ESSA), doesn’t mean much for LA Unified in an immediate sense because it had already received a waiver from...
By Craig Clough | December 11, 2015
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LAUSD getting computers to all students at 103 schools

By the end of next week just before winter break begins, 95 LA Unified schools will have been issued computer devices for the year — one for every student, according to Bill Wherritt, the district’s Distribution Project Manager for the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force. The remainder of the 103 schools in a pilot program for...
By Mike Szymanski | December 11, 2015
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Zimmer criticizes LA Times speculation over possible finalists
In a highly unusual move, LAUSD school board president Steve Zimmer issued a statement late last night, criticizing the Los Angeles Times for speculating who might become the district’s next superintendent. “We hope that the speculation on the part of the LA Times in an article published this evening does not cause harm or controversy...
By Mike Szymanski | December 11, 2015