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LA Unified Board to Address 2 Controversies — Vladovic, iPads*
Two issues that have the drawn LA Unified school board into unanticipated controversy move into the spotlight tomorrow when the board convenes its regular meeting for November. One is the public profile of Board President Richard Vladovic, as he awaits a consideration of a censure motion from Tamar Galatzan – the first motion of its...
By Vanessa Romo | November 11, 2013
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LA Teachers, Students Protest Reliance and Spending on iPads
As daylight faded and red brake lights of rush hour cast their eerie glow, a group of LA Unified teachers and students marched through downtown streets yesterday, demanding a reversal of district policies that value testing over “authentic” learning. Drivers honked and pumped their fists in solidarity as students waived their banners: “Technology for Teaching,...
By Vanessa Romo | November 8, 2013
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Teacher Union Survey Shows Mixed Support for iPads
A slight plurality of LA Unified teachers said they would favor continuing the iPad program, according to a new UTLA survey that produced mixed results in a district contemplating the next phase of a billion dollar digital device program. The union poll was conducted over a week in late October, with 255 teachers from the...
By Michael Janofsky | November 7, 2013
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LA Unified Estimates Costs for Future Digitial Devices
As LA Unified continues distributing iPads, the district for the first time is providing cost estimates for continuing the program beyond its current end date, December 2015. And in a presentation planned for tomorrow’s school board meeting, the Common Core Technology Project committee, chaired by board member Monica Ratliff, is also revealing several possibilities for how...
By Vanessa Romo | November 4, 2013
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LAUSD Strikes Back: ‘Mythbusting’ the iPads
Either as a response to iPad problems or as prelude to the LA Unified School Board’s meeting tomorrow that’s focusing on technology — or maybe both — the district sent around a one-pager last week to set the record straight on the iPad program. It takes the form of “myth busting.” Here is a concise...
By LA School Report | November 4, 2013
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LA Unified Principals Review the iPad Rollout: Not so Bad
What’s the reaction to the Phase 1 rollout of LA Unified’s iPad program? By one very unscientific measure, not so bad. At the request of Monica Ratliff, who chairs the board’s Common Core Technology Committee, the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the group representing school principals and assistant principals, surveyed schools among the first 47...
By LA School Report | November 1, 2013
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Deasy Leaving LA Unified? Who Could be Surprised
News Analysis If John Deasy is resigning of his own accord or he is soon to be fired, his potential departure as superintendent of the LA Unified School District further undermines leadership of the city’s public education community at a time of massive change and uncertainty. Whether a victim of policies judged too aggressive by...
By Michael Janofsky | October 25, 2013
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LA Unified Set for a Busy Afternoon of Committee Meetings
It’s a big meeting day at LA Unified’s downtown headquarters, with three committees convening one after another starting this afternoon. At 1 o’clock, it’s the Curriculum and Instruction Committee, chaired by Marguerite LaMotte; followed at 3 p.m. by the Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee, led by Bennett Kayser; and at 5:30 by the Common Core...
By LA School Report | October 22, 2013
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Anger, Frustration Evident as LAUSD Officials Meet Community
One parent wanted more counselors. Another wanted more security personnel. A student came forward with a friend and said, “You’re spending all that money on iPads. We’d prefer you spend it on nurses and librarians and can you please fix the bathrooms.” This was Tuesday night, in the auditorium of Burroughs Middle School in Hancock...
By Michael Janofsky | October 17, 2013
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Deasy Slows iPad Rollout
Superintendent John Deasy is proposing a nearly half year-long extension in completing LA Unified’s much-ballyhooed iPad rollout, pushing back completion of the program to the end of 2015. As originally planned, all LA Unified students were to have iPads by the spring of 2015* over three phases of distribution. If his proposal is approved by the...
By LA School Report | October 15, 2013