A lawsuit that could lead to a seismic shift in teacher tenure and dismissal methods is underway today in a packed Los Angeles courtroom. LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy is expected to take the stand. Courtroom seats are being assigned by lottery – with limited press seating available. We will do our best to update...

A lawsuit that could dramatically change how California public schools deal with ineffective teachers gets underway Monday in a California Superior Court for Los Angeles County, where LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy is expected to be the first witness to testify. The suit, Vergara v California, has been brought by students who are challenging state...

LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy yesterday offered unqualified support for the proposed regulations governing how state money for public education will reach individual school districts. Speaking at a meeting of the California Board of Education in Sacramento, he said the new Local Control Funding Formula “strikes the right balance” between districts and the communities they serve,...

Debate at times was intense as ever yesterday. Tamar Galatzan and Steve Zimmer still didn’t seem to agree on much, the board ignored a recommendation from the Bond Oversight Committee and nobody thought Monica Garcia had a great idea in giving the entire board responsibility for taking District 1 interests into consideration with their votes. But...

The LA Unified School Board made two major decisions today that will go a long way toward shaping the months ahead. The six members green-lighted Phase 2 of the iPad plan, ensuring enough tablets for standardized testing in the Spring, and they approved the appointment of a non-voting representative to serve District 1 until later...

With the State Board of Education meeting later this week to set a new funding plan for public education, LAUSD officials today sought ideas from community-based groups for putting the money to best use. Speaking to the representatives at the downtown office of the California Endowment, Superintendent John Deasy applauded the plan, known as the Local Control...

LA Unified students showed significant gains in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, according to data released today. Fourth-grade students recorded the highest gain – four points— among 21 urban school systems since 2011; fourth-graders also scored higher in math, and eighth-graders scored higher in reading. “I’m proud of the performance of our youth,” Superintendent...

The committee that oversees how LA Unified spends bond money today recommended that the district school board scale back the size of the next phase of iPad distribution. In rejecting the latest proposal from Superintendent John Deasy, the School Construction Bond Citizens’ Oversight Committee voted to reduce the number of iPads bought, to 38,535 from...

It’s the other delay yesterday that portends long-term consequences for LA Unified students. In the latest sign of the deep divide on the district school board, the members voted to hold off the next phase of the iPad program, rather than approve a carefully crafted compromise that the board had hammered out, and passed, at...

Friction between LA Unified and the state escalated today as Superintendent John Deasy lashed out against a new state rule that requires low-income parents to verify their economic status to insure that their children remain eligible for free or reduced-priced meals. The state is asserting that failure to provide the proof on an annual basis...