* UPDATED May 13 As district officials and other analysts pick apart the UTLA-funded study released Tuesday that claims that independent charter schools drain half a billion dollars from LA Unified, the district’s own numbers show LA Unified actually makes money from charters. The first finding of the 42-page union-funded Cost of Charter Schools report states that the revenue collected from...

UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl released a 12-minute video on YouTube today in which he asks members to vote for a dues increase. According to Caputo-Pearl, the union has not updated its dues structure since its inception 45 years ago, which now “literally threatens the future of UTLA.” In the video, Caputo-Pearl points out that UTLA’s...

In building a case for creating 260 charter schools within in LA Unified eight years at a cost of $490 million, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has cited “significant” gains by three charter organizations that have received $75 million from the foundation. But when all factors are considered, there is little conclusive evidence in the report...

As the second largest school district in the country, one would think the simple law of averages would see LA Unified with plenty of schools in Newsweek’s recent lists of the America’s Top High Schools and Beating the Odds — Top High Schools for Low-Income Students. But the district didn’t fare particularly well on either...

LA Unified added 70 assistant principals to its ranks this year along with officially combining the roles of assistant principal and “instructional specialist” into one. Still with 1,564 APs now on the payroll, leaders of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) say many more are needed. AALA, the union which represents district administrators, posted...

Principals at K-12, option and early education schools at LA Unified will start the 2015-16 school year next month working under a new evaluation system that was developed over the course of a two-year, no-stakes pilot program. The new system was announced in the recent newsletter of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA), the...

Taking over as new president of the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA), Juan Flecha says the time has come to take advantage of an improving economy and restore support staff and janitors at LA Unified schools. In an interview with LA School Report, Flecha outlined plans he has for the 3,000 certificated and classified administrators...

Judith Perez‘s 46 years with LA Unified came about through a random encounter in her early 20s. “I was not one of those people who knew at age five I would be a teacher,” she told LA School Report. After moving to Los Angeles in her early 20s and bouncing around a few unsatisfying jobs,...

LA Unified and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) have reached a tentative agreement on a 10 percent salary increase over two years that would replace a June 2014 agreement that called for a 6.5 percent raise. The agreement is set to be voted on for ratification by members of AALA — which represents...

Ref Rodriguez is an anomaly not only for becoming the first candidate backed by the state charter schools to win a seat on the LA Unified board. He’s an anomaly for winning at a time of mayoral disengagement with public education. That’s the view of Ben Austin, political director for Students Matter, the Vergara people,...