Bill Restricting ‘Willful Defiance’ for Suspending Students Moves Ahead With new data showing that more than half of all suspensions and a quarter of expulsions in California schools are for “willful defiance” of school authorities, the Assembly Education Committee voted 6-0 on Wednesday to move forward a bill that would restrict the use of the...

A bill sponsored by State Senator Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) that would expand the current “parent trigger” law to include more of California’s lowest performing schools was scheduled for a hearing by the Assembly Education Committee earlier today. The current 2010 version of the law has a cap limiting parent trigger takeovers to 75 schools...

LAUSD Board Votes to Improve Abuse Investigations With 278 Los Angeles Unified educators sitting in “teacher jail,” the school board voted Tuesday to streamline and improve the investigations of those accused of serious physical abuse or sexual misconduct. LA Daily News See also: LA School Report, LA Times L.A. Unified Board Ratifies ‘Parent-Trigger’ Partnership The...

Tuesday’s Board meeting began with a moment of silence for the victims and survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing and the memory of teacher and activist Sal Castro. During the following hours came several key decisions including the unanimous passage of Board member Tamar Galatzan’s resolution to streamline teacher misconduct investigations and the unanimous renewal for...

The teachers union has been strangely silent about the parent trigger issue lately — even as different variations on the controversial school turnaround approach are being explored. In just the last few weeks, the parents of 24th St. have chosen a new “hybrid” plan that would leave the younger grades in the hands of LAUSD; the...

The squabbling over education in the LA mayor’s race took a much-needed turn towards the substantive earlier today with a speech from candidate Wendy Greuel laying out some of her priorities to reform Los Angeles schools. In remarks delivered at  Granada Hills Charter High School, Greuel called for an audit of LAUSD “to slash non-school site...

Greuel to Release Education Plan Greuel might have wanted her staff to do a little better advance work, because Garcetti is well liked at the school — Camino Nuevo Charter Academy — which he helped get a $700,000 grant to help build a new soccer field,” reports The Times. KPCC Eric Garcetti Avoids Schoolyard Tussle...

Graduations Up, Dropouts Down in LAUSD, Statewide High school graduation rates for Los Angeles Unified and districts across California increased last year, with Latino students showing larger gains than their white and Asian classmates, the state Department of Education said Tuesday. LA Daily News See also: LA Times, KPCC Villaraigosa Criticizes Mayoral Candidates Over Education...

Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., the decision of the parents over the fate of 24th Street Elementary School is scheduled to be announced at a park near the school. The decision will be based on a vote of the 369 parents who signed the original parent trigger petition, according to the LA Weekly.  Whichever of the...

24th Street Elementary Pulling Parent Trigger The Parent Trigger at 24th Street Elementary School in West Adams keeps chugging along — despite what L.A. mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti thinks about it. LA Weekly See also: San Bernardino Sun New Analysis Bolsters Case Against Suspension, Researchers Say The results of a new analysis of out-of-school-suspension data...