Deasy: Teachers Delaying LAUSD Bid for $40M in Federal Grants Officials with the Los Angeles Unified School District raced on Monday to meet a fast-approaching deadline to apply for up to $40 million in federal grants. But Superintendent John Deasy said United Teachers Los Angeles has yet to sign off on the bid because it “requires...

Picking up on our story from yesterday afternoon (LAUSD & UTLA: Headed To Mediation), the Daily News‘ Barbara Jones has a story out today in which UTLA President Warren Fletcher is quoted calling LAUSD’s declaration of an impasse and call for mediation “premature.” (LAUSD says talks with UTLA on teacher evaluations are at impasse). However,...

LA School Report has learned that LAUSD has filed a “declaration of impasse” in their negotiations with UTLA over teacher evaluations, and as a result the negotiations have gone to mediation with the Public Employee Relations Board. The “impasse” declaration was filed more than a couple of weeks ago, according to LAUSD Chief Labor and...

Raised in Pacoima and an alumna of San Fernando High School, District 6 School Board Member Nury Martinez earlier this fall announced that she isn’t running for re-election to the LAUSD board in order to run for City Council (see Martinez Running For City Council). The announcement hasn’t made the four-year board member any less busy....

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has pretty much everything that Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa could ever have wanted when it comes to control over his school district.  By state law, the former Obama chief of staff appoints the school board and the superintendent. He and his City Hall deputies effectively set policy and budget priorities. But...

The rise of outside money in LAUSD board elections has coincided with a spate of negative campaign advertising in recent elections. It’s a tactic that nobody claims to enjoy, but it seems to work. So it’s likely the upcoming campaigns leading to the March LAUSD election will continue the trend. “Welcome to the brave new...

Deasy Gets Authority Over Approving Outside Control of Schools The LAUSD school board approved giving Deasy the new authority when it approved extensions of agreements with the mayor’s Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and L.A.’s Promise. The teachers union and two school board members called for a delay, seeking a more extensive review of the schools’...

Late Monday afternoon, LAUSD board member Steve Zimmer announced an updated, much-softened charter school oversight proposal. It replaces the previous moratorium on new charter schools with a request for charters to “voluntarily delay requesting action on new charter applications” until a new oversight scheme can be developed. The new version also asks the Superintendent to...

When the Board meeting agenda came out last week, it initially included Board member Zimmer’s resolution regarding use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers (see PDF here).The Zimmer resolution sought to block LAUSD from using a new student achievement measurement called Academic Growth Over Time (AGT) when evaluating teachers – even in combination with other...

Here’s an interesting chart from the November issue of Chicago Magazine which seems to show that LAUSD schools run longer than other big cities like DC or NYC (and that the poverty rate for LAUSD kids is second only to Chicago). However, the average teacher salary is lower than all but Miami-Dade. And the graduation...