Tomorrow morning at 10 am, the Board of Education’s Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee will meet (see agenda here). According to LAUSD spokesman Tom Waldman, one of the issues to be discussed tomorrow is propositions 30 and 38, and what effect they will have on the district should they pass or fail. Both propositions are...

Most Angelenos don’t realize it, but the local primary election is just five months away. Even fewer know that in addition the Mayor and City Council, the March 5 ballot will include three school board seats. Three, count ’em, three (out of seven). But why should anyone be paying attention? There aren’t even any candidates...

Last Friday, UTLA put on an event to demonstrate support for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and held a conference call with CTU delegates who were then still on strike (see Support spreads for CTU Socialist Worker).  Excitement among union leaders and rank-and-file teachers was high.  Accountability-minded reformers were grumbling that the district had given away too...

Just about everyone who watches LAUSD is scratching their heads wondering just what board member Steve Zimmer is doing — lately more than ever. He’s introduced two incredibly polarizing motions recently– one to reject the use of Academic Growth Over Time in teacher evaluations, and one to provide greater oversight for charter schools and, more...

Parent activist Scott Folsom (4 LA Kids) suggests that there could be a big change in the makeup of the LAUSD board after the Spring elections — and is throwing his own name into the ring as a candidate (again). “History tells us school boards prefer to appoint their own superintendent when their membership changes,” writes the Deasy...

Want to know who’s filed to run for LAUSD board member next year, and how much cash they’ve gathered for their campaigns?  Click over to the LA City Ethics Commission’s website: 2013 Municipal and LAUSD Election. Below is a snapshot from yesterday evening showing the three LAUSD races for 2013 (towards the bottom). District 2 is the...

The latest news is that Brian Johnson, the former Teach For America (TFA) Los Angeles executive director who ran for and lost a close race for state assembly (right), isn’t going to run for the LAUSD school board. This spring there are three spots coming open on the board — including another TFA alumnus, Steve Zimmer. The...

A number of parents and teachers showed up to today’s jam-packed school board meeting to denounce board member Steve Zimmer’s proposal to reject Academic Growth Over Time (or AGT) as a measurement of pupil progress in teacher evaluations. About six or seven of them wore t-shirts reading, “SHAME ON YOU ZIMMER.” They never got their chance...

There’s a teachers’ strike in Chicago, in case you hadn’t heard. And, not surprisingly, lots of media and campaign folks are trying to make national and political connections — linking the Chicago strike to last year’s showdown in Wisconsin, or the so-called “war on teachers” being conducted by so-called “school reformers,” or the November elections)....

Tomorrow at the LAUSD board meeting (see agenda here), board member Steve Zimmer will make two big moves. The first is his long-awaited proposal to reject the use of Academic Growth Over Time, or AGT, as a measurement of pupil progress when evaluating teachers. AGT measures student improvement on the California Standardized Tests (CSTs), and...