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6 top education news stories in Los Angeles in the first 6 months of 2016
The first half of 2016 brought high stakes and high drama to Los Angeles’ education scene, from dire budget predictions to heated charter debates to attempts at overhauling teacher tenure laws. There were anniversaries to celebrate along the way — 25 years for both charter schools nationwide and Teach For America — and comings and goings of superintendents, plus the...
By Laura Greanias | June 30, 2016
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Listen: Democrats Divided on Gov. Brown’s Ed. Budget Reform
In a recent Which Way L.A. segment, host Warren Olney discusses the battle brewing in Sacramento over Gov. Jerry Brown’s approach to education budget reform. Brown’s plan to give struggling school districts like LAUSD, which have higher numbers of low-income and English language learner students, higher funding than more successful districts, has divided Democrats in...
By Samantha Oltman | April 30, 2013
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Morning Read: Study Praises Teacher Evaluation Tool
First Academic Study of Controversial LA Unified Teacher Evaluation Program An academic study of a teacher evaluation method that looks at how much teachers are able to improve students’ test scores gave the pilot program a good grade. But the study comes too late — the teacher’s union and Los Angeles Unified School District agreed...
By LA School Report | April 29, 2013
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Shepard Fairey Asks LA Students for Inspiration
Street artist Shepard Fairey is calling on Los Angeles students to send ideas for his next big art campaign, a poster series that will appear this July across the city on billboards and buses. The deadline to submit art ideas is today. Students can submit their ideas on the LA Fund’s Facebook page, by tweeting...
By Samantha Oltman | April 26, 2013
Investigation: Nearly 1,000 Native Children Died in Federal Boarding Schools
Podcast: What a Mentorship Mindset Can Do for Student Motivation
Black and Hispanic Voters Say Democrats Aren’t Focused Enough on K-12 Education
Teen Activist Rhea Maniar on the Power of Abortion to Turn Out Young Voters
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Deasy Requests Changes to Teacher Dismissal Bill
Earlier this week, the LA Weekly honed in on the outsized influence California’s largest teachers union is perceived to have on education policy issues, including recent efforts to speed the removal of sexual predators from the classroom. “That’s how CTA infamously killed a [2012] law to fire sex-pervert teachers, SB 1530,” LA Weekly writer Matthew Mullins wrote. “A...
By Samantha Oltman | April 24, 2013
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Morning Read: State Democrats Pass Anti-Reform Resolution
California Democrats Blast Efforts to Overhaul Schools California Democrats on Sunday condemned efforts led by members of their own party to overhaul the nation’s schools, arguing that groups such as StudentsFirst and Democrats for Education Reform are fronts for Republicans and corporate interests. LA Times L.A. School Reform Effort Draws Diverse Group of Wealthy Donors...
By Samantha Oltman | April 15, 2013
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Listen: What Do Ed Leaders Want From LA’s Next Mayor?
What LA’s next Mayor should do to help make the schools better has been on everyone’s minds this week, and KPCC interviewed three education leaders to get their views. Elise Buik, president of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, wants the mayor to help the district “replicate high-performance schools and transform low-performing schools more...
By Samantha Oltman | April 12, 2013
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LAUSD Suspensions: Not Great, but Not the Worst
Check out this visual breakdown of suspension and discipline rates in school districts across the country, via EdWeek. The positive takeaway is that even three years ago (which is when the data used in this interactive was sampled), LAUSD’s rate of suspensions and expulsions was lower than in many other school districts in the nation. While...
By Samantha Oltman | April 10, 2013
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Suspension Rates Vary Widely Among Schools
A new report released by UCLA’s Civil Rights Project adds to a growing collection of data that makes the case against using suspensions and so-called “zero tolerance” policies to discipline middle and high school students. The new report, which looked at middle and high schools across the country, finds significant discipline gaps between white, black,...
By Samantha Oltman | April 9, 2013
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Morning Read: Parent Trigger Proposal Well-Received
Proposal for Parent-Trigger Overhaul at L.A. School Well-Received Leaders of a parent group have endorsed a plan to improve 24th Street Elementary, which would be jointly run by L.A. Unified and Crown Prep charter school. LA Times See also: LA School Report, LA Times Now Teacher Dismissal Bill Off and Running With Committee Approval A...
By Samantha Oltman | April 4, 2013