Today is the last day for LA teachers union members to submit their votes to support or reject the teacher evaluation agreement that has been hashed out between UTLA leadership and LAUSD. In the January 15 edition of its weekly newsletter, UTLA urges its members, in so many words, to support the tentative agreement, warning teachers...

On 11th Anniversary, No Child Left Behind Law in Tatters As the federal No Child Left Behind law’s eleventh birthday arrives Tuesday, California is one of the few states that still must meet its requirements. KPCC California Schools Flunk Education Group’s Ratings California is sorely lacking when it comes to school reform, failing to adopt...

SB 10, a bill aimed at streamlining the dismissal process for teachers accused of sexual misconducted, was introduced earlier this week and is now out in a full-text version. A carbon copy of SB 1530 (the previous bill seeking to address this issue) SB 10 is among a handful of proposals sure to garner attention...

Lots of blame was dished out last week after a state audit found weak dismissal and reporting practices at LAUSD regarding teachers accused of sexual misconduct. Especially vocal was UTLA president Warren Fletcher, who has consistently lobbed criticism at LAUSD for how it has managed the scandal. Now I am a Prop-30-supporting-dyed-in-the-wool union Democrat, but...

LAUSD, Teachers’ Union Reach ‘Historic’ Agreement on Evaluations Just days before a court-ordered deadline, L.A. Unified and its teachers’ union announced a “historic” tentative agreement allowing administrators to use student test scores in teacher evaluations. KPCC See also: LA Times, EdSource, LA Daily News, EdWeek, WSJ, UTLA California Legislator Vows to Reintroduce Bill to Speed Teacher...

The deadline for the fourth round of school proposals for Public School Choice (PSC) is due next week, on October 31. LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy has identified 13 low-performing schools to participate in what is called PSC 4.0.  This is a decrease from the previous year, when 33 schools were part of the process. Only...

Mediator Don Raska has been appointed to try to help resolve the teacher evaluation negotiations between LAUSD and the teachers union (UTLA), according to a UTLA newsletter. The October 19th issue of the United Teacher states that, “the union continues to push back against LAUSD’s proposal to link a percentage of a teacher’s evaluation to...

Until recently, millions of dollars of special interest money flowed directly to candidates for their own campaigns (shown in red). However, the March election for three LAUSD Board seats promises to be dominated by a torrent of outside money from independent expenditure committees (IEs) – much the way super PACs have eclipsed campaign contributions at the...

Failure of teacher evaluation bill clouds CA’s NCLB waiver SI&A Cabinet Report: Withdrawal of the teacher evaluation bill in the final days of the legislative session last week likely removes an easy path for California schools to relief from federal sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Act, state officials said last week. [Also: The California Teachers...