LA Unified added 70 assistant principals to its ranks this year along with officially combining the roles of assistant principal and “instructional specialist” into one. Still with 1,564 APs now on the payroll, leaders of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) say many more are needed. AALA, the union which represents district administrators, posted...

A new poll shows that California voters would support reauthorization of Proposition 30, a 2012 measure that raised taxes to support public education. The survey by PACE/USC Rossier School of Education Poll shows 63 percent of voters favor extending at least one provision of Prop. 30 — the tax increase on high incomes or the...

The first big step was getting a pay raise. That happened earlier this year. So what’s next for UTLA? United Teachers Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl says extensive input from teachers over the summer points to conditions in the classroom and the future of health benefits as among the issues most important to the union membership. He...

By Megan McArdle Poor kids don’t do nearly as well in school as the children of the affluent. There’s a vicious cycle when you talk about this, where education reformers blame the teachers, teachers blame the parents and the economic conditions of the children, and everyone sort of gives each other the side eye while glumly...

Governor Jerry Brown today signed Senate Bill 725 into law, allowing close to 5,000 high school seniors across the state to graduate without passing a now-cancelled high school exit exam. The governor signed the bill without comment, his office said. Brown’s signature brings to a close a problem that began in May, when the California Department of...

* UPDATED UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl said the teachers union is planning an aggressive campaign to oppose Eli Broad and other wealthy foundation leaders who have announced plans for a major expansion of charter schools in LA Unified. In a wide-ranging interview that focused on the state of charters in the district, Caputo-Pearl was highly...

LA Unified said today its inspector general is “looking into” the possibility that nearly 100 district employees used district email addresses to contact ashleymadison.com, a website that promotes extra-marital affairs, calling itself “the most famous name in infidelity and married dating.” The district’s legal office has sent employees a memo yesterday, reminding them that the...

By Hanna Sanchez The Paper and Packaging Board has released a new survey that explored the use of paper by US-based educators, students, and parents, and its role in learning. Results revealed that despite the increasing popularity of digital technology in education, majority of Americans still prefer paper-based learning. The survey, “2015 The Annual Back-to-School Report,”...

Latinos struggle to close gap with whites in California ACT scores “I find it really disturbing,” said Mark Schneider, a vice president at American Institutes for Research. Los Angeles Times Bill protecting contractors in district leaseback deals dies in committee A bill aimed at protecting school construction contractors from financial losses if their “lease-leaseback” deals...