At his final appearance before LA Unified’s Committee of the Whole yesterday, chief lobbyist Edgar Zazueta introduced his successor — Leilani Yee. “I am terribly nervous because I don’t feel like I’m good at public speaking, like Edgar is,” Yee told the board, her first appearance as the heir apparent to the job — the board still...

In what may be his final presentation to the LA Unified school board, Chief of External Affairs Edgar Zazueta said he will be giving a “legislative 101” tutorial at tomorrow’s Committee of the Whole meeting. The district announced in September that Zazueta, the district’s chief lobbyist in Sacramento and Washington, is resigning to join the Association of California...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said yesterday he plans to initiate an immediate nationwide search to replace the district’s out-going chief of external affairs, Edgar Zazueta. “We are beginning the search immediately, we have put the word out,” Cortines told LA School Report at the Instructional Technology Initiative Task Force meeting at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex....

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines dropped some news on the crowd Tuesday when he announced that Chief of External Affairs Edgar Zazueta is leaving the district. Zazueta, who was onstage at the time, moderating the district’s “Back to School” forum at the  Edward R. Roybal Learning Center,  is the district’s chief lobbyist in Sacramento and Washington D.C. “This...

LA Unified’s chief lobbyist, Edgar Zazueta, told the school board last week that the House of Representatives version of the revised No Child Left Behind bill could cost the district $78.7 million in Title I money for low income schools, which translates to 22.9 percent of its funding. The board has voted to protest the House...

A coalition of education advocates and community groups has developed a new tool, a “student needs index,” and offering it to LA Unified to help identify high-need schools as the district refines its next annual budget. Created by the Community Coalition, Advancement Project and InnerCity Struggle, the index uses environmental, social and academic factors that...

The California Department of Education is setting aside $250 million for school districts to link high school curricula to careers beyond the classroom, an initiative designed to keep students engaged in classes often consider dull and dry, while preparing them for a high-skilled job market. The 40 one-time grants bundled in the Career Pathways Trust –...

With the State Board of Education meeting later this week to set a new funding plan for public education, LAUSD officials today sought ideas from community-based groups for putting the money to best use. Speaking to the representatives at the downtown office of the California Endowment, Superintendent John Deasy applauded the plan, known as the Local Control...

A bill moving through the California State Assembly would suspend nearly all of the old standardized tests to free up money and student energy to “field test” the new computer-based Common Core assessments. But testing data from those field tests won’t be used for accountability purposes – they’ll simply be used as practice for students...