The whole world can now prioritize the characteristics necessary for LA Unified’s next superintendent through an online survey the district released last night. The question is — as some school board members pointed out before the survey launched — why would anyone want anything less than all 21 qualities included in the survey? With a pull-down...

LA Unified School Board President Steve Zimmer kept up his attack against the Broad Foundation charter schools expansion plan, appearing on KNBC’s “News Conference” yesterday and calling the plan a “perversion of what the charter movement was supposed to be.” “The reason why I’m concerned is because this is really a business plan that doesn’t address all students,”...

This 12-minute video was posted on the LAUSD website today and will be shown to all 6th to 12th graders to warn them of the dangers of “sexting.” It is part of a campaign that will include lesson plans, posters, bilingual tip sheets and other resources for 900 elementary, middle and high schools. The video...

Hundreds of LA Unified employees and parents filed into the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center‘s downtown auditorium yesterday for a “Back to School at LAUSD” forum, hosted by Superintendent Ramon Cortines and other key district leaders. The event wasn’t called to unveil a specific agenda, but more for an open panel discussion on issues facing the...

Steve Zimmer, president of the LA Unified school board, said today that plans by Eli Broad and other philanthropists to expand the number of charter schools in the district represents “a strategy to bring down LAUSD that leaves 250,000 kids vulnerable to damage.” A draft report of the plan appears show how the organizations involved...

  * UPDATE A group of parents at Westwood Charter School fear that families are faking their addresses to enroll their children in the highly sought-after LA Unified-affiliated school. The parents were concerned that school enrollment is coming dangerously close to its maximum capacity. First priority for enrollment in such schools usually goes to local residents. When the...

By Gary Walker The new Common Core state standardized test results are in, and they don’t look great for LAUSD. Nearly a year after the departure of Supt. John Deasy, the school district still awaits new permanent executive leadership. Traditional public school enrollment is declining as charter schools pick up more students and move into empty...

The NBA’s LA Clippers have given $3 million to City Year, which helps service low-performing schools in low economic areas of Los Angeles. The announcement was made at a City Year opening day ceremony on Friday with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and LA Unified board president Steve Zimmer.  City Year has 309 AmeriCorps members...

For 35 years, a group of mostly women gathered to work with clay at their adult education ceramics class, but now it may be canceled due to an LAUSD Catch-22 snafu. Adults, students, grandmothers and their grandchildren have attended the Adult Education Ceramics class at Mark Twain Middle School, and sometimes the class draws as many...

The LA Unified school board yesterday picked the search firm to find the district’s next superintendent, completing a relatively speedy process that suggests the members want a successor in place when Ramon Cortines steps down in December. The search process began Sunday, when the board narrowed the field to two head-hunter firms from five and was...