Morning Read: Incumbents Lead on Direct Contributions
Samantha Oltman | January 28, 2013
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LA Election Fundraising Tops $18M
In races for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, incumbents easily outpace challengers. LA Daily News
L.A. Unified’s College-Prep Push Is Based on False Data
San Jose’s school district, which requires all students to pass the classes necessary to apply to California universities, initially reported strong results. But its success was overstated. Those results should raise warning flags for other school systems, including Los Angeles Unified, that based key policy decisions on San Jose’s misreported data. LA Times
LAUSD Plans to Add 1,000 New Campus Aides for Security at Elementary Schools
The Los Angeles Unified School District plans to make more than 1,000 new hires to bolster security at hundreds of campuses in a move some critics have called “security on the cheap.” LA Daily News
See also: KPCC, LA Times
State Legislators Seek Crackdown on Expensive Form of School Finance
Two state lawmakers moved on Friday to crack down on a costly method of finance that hundreds of school districts have been relying on to pay for new construction. LA Times
Teachers Flip for ‘Flipped Learning’ Class Model
When Timmy Nguyen comes to his pre-calculus class, he’s already learned the day’s lesson – he watched it on a short online video prepared by his teacher for homework. AP
Days of Small K-3 Classes Look Done for in California
California embarked on an ambitious experiment in 1996 to improve its public schools by putting its youngest students in smaller classes. Nearly 17 years later, the goal of maintaining classrooms of no more than 20 pupils in the earliest grades has been all but discarded. KPCC
Students Struggling With English Not Getting Help
More than 20,000 California students struggling with English are not receiving legally required services to help them, setting them up for academic failure, says a report by two civil rights groups. LA Times
Arrest of LAUSD Teacher May Bolster Lawmaker’s Case to Speed up Dismissals
In California, school districts can remove a teacher accused of serious misconduct from the classroom, but must put them on paid leave through the dismissal process — and during appeals — if the employee contests the action. KPCC
Attorney: Alleged LAUSD Abusers Mostly at Low-Income Schools
Attorney Martha Escutia said in a statement that the public deserves to “know why LAUSD is unable to protect children and why a majority of alleged sex abusers appear to end up teaching at economically disadvantaged schools.” CBS LA
Calif. Agency Takes Months to Review Misconduct
Months after the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing was notified of a Los Angeles Unified elementary school teacher suspected of molesting at least a dozen students and a principal who failed to report him to authorities, the agency has not taken action on the cases. AP
North Hollywood High’s Cyber Patriot Team Heads to National Finals
North Hollywood High School is one of three Los Angeles Unified campuses that will send teams to the National High School Cyber Defense Competition in Washington, D.C. in March. LA Daily News
Russia Is Topic as LAUSD Academic Decathlon Begins
The topic is Russia for the more than 500 students from 58 high schools gathered at Roybal Learning Center in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday for the Los Angeles Unified School District Academic Decathlon. LA Times