“It’s something that I moved really quickly on,” Deasy said. “I’ve placed an emphasis on it. We’ve tracked it school by school.”

The number of instructional days lost due to suspension began to drop before Deasy took over. In 2007, the school board passed the Discipline Foundation Policy, which aimed to lower suspensions by “using effective classroom management and positive behavior support strategies by providing early intervention for misconduct and appropriate use of consequences.”

But as he has on many fronts, Deasy has taken a more aggressive approach to lowering suspensions.

“Dr. Deasy has been very diligent on conducting performance dialogues with instructional superintendents and looking at data,” said Zsuzsanna Vincenze, Director of School Operations. “It’s been very data driven.”

In 2011-12, nearly half of all suspensions were for “willful defiance,” essentially failing to obey an order by a teacher, such as refusing to spit out gum or turn off a cell phone.

But in May, the board voted, 5-2, to stop suspending students for “willful defiance.” The two dissenting votes were cast my Marguerite LaMotte and Tamar Galatzan, who told LA School Report at the time, “I think that limiting the options for schools to deal with students who don’t listen, disrupt the class, don’t what to be there — it’s sending the wrong message, and it’s not fair to students who are there to learn.”

As a result of the vote, the new district policy is expected to lower the suspension rate even more.

“I wouldn’t say nobody will ever be suspended,” said Vincenze. “But we do continue to reduce the rate of suspension and to look at the rate of disproportionate suspension.”

According to a U.S. Department of Education report released last year, black students in Los Angeles are suspended at a far higher rate than other students. “That gap,” said Deasy, “has closed dramatically.”

Previous posts: District Claims Reduced Suspensions; Why Galatzan Opposed End to “Willful Defiance” Suspensions; Suspension Rates Vary Widely Among Schools; LAUSD Suspensions: Not Great, but Not the Worst

A Level Playing Field for Transgender Students
In February, the California Interscholastic Federation adopted a progressive policy, which takes effect in the fall, under which transgender students must be allowed to participate on sports teams of the gender they identify with rather than the teams of their physical gender — after a panel reviews each situation to determine that the athlete truly is transgender. LA Times Editorial

Why We Need to Reform Education Now
To improve our schools, we have to humanize them and make education personal to every student and teacher in the system. Education is always about relationships. HuffPo Opinion (TED Talks Education)

Bill Aims to Help Expelled and Truant Students Get Back on Track
The purpose of a complicated bill aimed at preventing students from languishing in alternative schools became much clearer after the testimony of a former student who got stuck in one. EdSource

Leveling the Playing Field
Beach City schools stand to lose millions under Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to create a more equitable education system. Easy Reader

California Looks to Ontario Schools’ Reformer for Guidance
Michael Fullan may be coming soon to a school district near you.  The man credited with transforming the Canadian province of Ontario into one of the world’s most effective school systems is ready to help California do the same. EdSource

Lynwood Schools Take Part in State Pilot Testing Program
With California’s transition to the new common core education standards quickly approaching, the Lynwood Unified School District has been gearing up for the changes with specialized training and pilot testing that will prepare local schools for the switch to a new state standardized testing system, which is expected to take place in 2014-15. LA Wave

Special Education: California Parents’ Lawsuit Could Force Expansion of Programs
Initiated by dissatisfied Morgan Hill parents, a lawsuit that could vastly expand services for disabled students in California, and greatly increase the costs of educating them, is inching toward trial. Mercury News

Charter Advocacy Organization Calls for Independent Authorizers
A charter school advocacy organization has laid out its case for state lawmakers to pass policies that support using independent authorizers of those schools, an approach that it says is the best one for bringing both accountability and autonomy to the sector. EdWeek

Suspect Who Allegedly Brought Handgun to Canoga Park High School Arrested
A 19-year-old man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of bringing a handgun onto the Canoga Park High School campus, officials said.  The unidentified suspect was apprehended about 1 p.m. just outside the school’s agricultural area, Los Angeles Unified spokeswoman Monica Carazo said. LA Daily News
See also: LA Times

Duncan Says It’s Still Possible for State to Get NCLB Waiver
California remains interested in receiving a waiver from sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law, and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Wednesday it remains possible for the state to get one. EdSource

L.A. Mayor’s Race: Wendy Greuel Uses Web Chat to Target Women
The chat participants, including Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, L.A. Unified President Monica Garcia, longtime civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) and operatives from the Feminist Majority and the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project, urged Los Angeles viewers to join their canvassing efforts on Greuel’s behalf. LA Times

Poll: Should Breakfast Be Banned From the Classroom?
Should under-nourished students be allowed to eat in the classroom? The issue became a hot topic this week after Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy passed on making a decision, putting the future of a pilot breakfast program into the hands of the school board. KPCC
See also: LA School Report

California Teachers Sue Unions to Stop Dues
Ten California teachers — several of them from Orange County — are suing in federal court to stop mandatory union dues. The lawsuit seeks to expand last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision involving union activity in a California special election. KPCC
See also: HuffPo

Within Schools, Novice Teachers Paired With Struggling Students
More than a decade of research on teacher characteristics shows that, on almost every quality measure you can think of, schools with large populations of low-income, minority, and low-achieving students get shortchanged. They have fewer experienced teachers, fewer teachers teaching within their field, and teachers who show greater variations in effectiveness, including more of the worst performers. EdWeek

Duncan Admits Flaws in Current Standardized Testing
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan acknowledged serious flaws in the standardized tests that currently drive American schools, telling an audience of education researchers on Tuesday that the tests are an inadequate gauge of student and teacher performance. EdSource

StudentsFirst Under Scrutiny From the Left
Michelle Rhee frequently says her StudentsFirst lobbying group is a bipartisan organization that backs Democrats and Republicans who support her vision for education: charter schools, vouchers and performance pay for teachers. Sac Bee

Common Core Moves a Step Closer in CA, GOP Attacks Standards in Other States
Plans to commit California schools to a new student testing system aligned to the new common core curriculum standards by 2014-15 won passage Wednesday out of a key legislative committee. SI&A Cabinet Report

CA Bill Would Curtail Police Role on Public School Campuses
A bill to limit the role of campus police in disciplining students passed its first committee  hearing in Sacramento Wednesday. The bill’s L.A. sponsor aims to reduce the number of tickets that campus police issue to students. KPCC

Turning Teens Into Police Officers
Roberta Weintraub, a 77-year-old political activist and former president of the L.A. Unified School District Board of Education, has always had a soft spot for the men and women in blue. Jewish Journal LA

The Messy Complications of Breakfast in the Classroom
The Los Angeles Unified School District is in a period of tremendous upheaval that, it’s hoped, will result in better education for its students. With so much changing and so much at stake, of course there are more than a few daggers drawn. But when the teachers union and district administration can’t even get together over feeding hungry kids, something sick is going on. LA Times Opinion

Pre-K Funding is Delivered Another Blow
California state funding per child fell by more than than $400 compared with the previous year, and only 41% of 4-year-olds were served by public pre-K programs and Head Start in the 2011-12 school year, the institute reported. LAT

Washington and Sacramento Must End Cold War on Education
It is too late for California to get more than the sliver of Race to the Top funds it has already received. But the administration’s rejection of California’s NCLB waiver request is too important an issue to accept without further urgent efforts on both sides to reach a resolution. EdSource (opinion)

Walton Foundation Gives $8 Million to StudentsFirst
A foundation associated with the Wal-Mart family fortune has expanded its support for the education advocacy group run by former District of Columbia schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. LA Times

Granada Hills Honored for Record Three-Peat As Academic Decathlon Champs
To raucous cheers and the skirl of the school’s bagpipers, the nine-member Academic Decathlon team from Granada Hills Charter High School was celebrated Monday for winning its third consecutive national championship – the first such achievement for a California campus. LA Daily News

New Science Standards Hard Sell at Cash-Strapped Sylmar High School
Ronald Hitchcock has been teaching science at Sylmar High School for more than a decade. He’s seen a lot of changes, but perhaps nothing has hit the school harder than the news last fall that it lost a $3.5 million QEIA grant.  “We’re pretty cash strapped right now,” he said. KPCC

Positive School Climate Boosts Test Scores, Study Says
It’s the million-dollar question or, given the size of the California education budget, the $50-billion-dollar question: What makes extraordinarily successful schools different from other schools? The answer: school climate, according to a new study from WestEd. EdSource

Attack on School Reformers Rings Hollow
This time, the powerful teachers’ unions went too far. At this month’s California Democratic Convention, a resolution attacking education reform movements was approved by delegates. It was sponsored by the California Teachers Association, the California Federation of Teachers and the California Faculty Association. O.C. Register Editorial

Bill Seeks to Limit School Police in Discipline Matters
As the national debate grows louder over deploying police in schools, the largest state in the union ­– California – is considering a bill that would require schools to set “clear guidelines” defining the role of school police and limit their involvement in disciplinary matters. CA Watch

School Discipline Survey Finds Challenges in Making Changes
Many school districts are changing their codes of conduct in a way that limits the use of out-of-school suspension and expulsion and defines the role of law enforcement in school. But the resources—human and financial—needed to make those changes don’t always match what districts can muster. EdWeek

New National Goals Set for Teaching Profession
A blueprint for improving the teaching profession nationally calls for more emphasis on quality preparation programs, higher standards for entry into the profession and better compensation for both classroom educators and school administrators. SI&A Cabinet Report

State Probes Burbank Third Grade Cheating Report
Burbank school officials say a third-grade teacher has been put on leave after a student reported a got help with answers on state standardized tests. KPCC
See also: LA Times

State Toughens Regs for Interns Teaching English Learners
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing will now require non-credentialed Teach For America teachers and other intern teachers to receive more training in how to teach English learners and to get weekly on-the-job mentoring and supervision. EdSource

Democratic Party Schism Over Scandalous Schools: Gloria Romero, Slimed by Teacher Unions, Says Sober Up
A few days ago, the teachers union wing of the California Democratic Party tarred the growing numbers of breakaway Democrats who, in sync with President Obama, point the finger at teachers unions as a big obstacle to fixing crappy schools. LA Weekly

LA Mayor’s Race: How the Candidates Stand on Your Issues
Even though the mayor doesn’t have any direct authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District, many voters said they want the next major to play a role in education. KPCC

As Restorative Justice Spreads, When Do You Suspend?
Critics of suspensions, and the zero-tolerance policies that fuel them, advocate for restorative practices, which have been making inroads across the country to demonstrated positive effect. But restorative practices take time, in a way that simple punishment does not. EdWeek

Help on the Road to Higher Education
Parent College gives fathers and mothers an introduction to campus life so they can help their teenagers gain admission. LA Times

A Curriculum Crunch for California
While education reformers in Sacramento continue to obsess about how easy it should be to fire teachers and how important tests should be in evaluating their performance, almost no one is talking about the central issue of what students are supposed to be learning in the near future. LA Times Editorial

Hawthorne Middle School Teacher Wins Honor
A teacher at Bud Carson Middle School in Hawthorne is among three to be named California Teachers of the Year by Project Lead the Way, a nationwide nonprofit that partners with schools to offer a hands-on engineering curriculum. Daily Breeze

Educators Want Concrete Data to Build New API Indicators
In the search for a more perfect school accountability system, classroom teachers and district administrators joined school advocates in a call last week for more concrete indicators – like daily attendance, fitness marks and discipline records. SI&A Cabinet Report

School Boards Join Movement Against Out-of-School Suspensions
The National School Boards Association has labeled the use of out-of-school suspensions a “crisis” in a new report. EdWeek

Baldwin Park School District Wins #1 Spot in Closing the Achievement Gap
Recently we reported on two schools in the Baldwin Park school district that have unique programs: a high school that helps teenage parents stay in school, and an elementary school where teaching a dual language immersion program is yielding top results. KPCC

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti Engage in Acrimonious Debate
Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti blasted one another with a torrent of allegations Wednesday night in the most acrimonious debate of the Los Angeles mayor’s race. LA Times

Frustrated Parents Fought to Reclaim Their Kids’ Destiny—And It Worked
The parents of children attending the 24th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles made history this week. And, in doing so, the use of ‘Parent Trigger’ legislation to ensure parents have a seat at the education decision-making table for their children has gone mainstream. TakePart Op-Ed

Voters Favor Extra Funds for Poor Students but Not English Learners
A majority of Californians support Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to provide additional funding to districts with more low-income and English learner students, according to a newly released poll by the Public Policy Institute of California. EdSource

Students Rally to Support Adult Education Programs
A group of adult education students held a rally Wednesday to demand greater funding for adult education programs. LA Times

New RTTT Competition Announced, Targets Early Learning
The majority of the Obama administration’s remaining 2013 Race to the Top funds – some $370 million – will be available for states looking to develop successful early learning programs for children, according to an announcement Tuesday. SI&A Cabinet Report

Education Advocate Michelle Rhee Fends Off Accusations
Michelle Rhee, head of a group that advocates using student test scores to evaluate teachers, fends off accusations that she failed to pursue evidence of cheating when she ran the D.C. school system. LA Times

Study: Charters Get Less Funding Than Traditional Public Schools
Public charter schools received significantly less funding than traditional public schools in five cities, including the District, between 2007 and 2011, according to a new study released Wednesday. WaPo

CA Legislature Kills Bill to Shield Identities of Armed Teachers
A bill pushed by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly to train and shield armed “school marshals” failed to make it out of the Assembly Education Committee today after a 5-1 vote. Sac Bee

L.A. Unified Board Ratifies ‘Parent-Trigger’ Partnership
The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday ratified a partnership between the school district and a charter school to take control of struggling 24th Street Elementary under a controversial parent-empowerment law. LA Times
See also: Color Lines, LA School Report

School Board Renews Contract for Ivy Academia Charter
The petition by Ivy Academia Entreprenurial Charter School was renewed with little discussion, less than two weeks after a jury convicted its founders of grand theft, embezzlement and other charges. LA Times
See also: LA School Report

L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa Challenges on Schools
Unions and other elements of the education establishment strongly backed Antonio Villaraigosa’s steps up the political ladder – until he became an advocate of charter schools, parental empowerment, modifying teacher seniority and tenure and other reforms that the establishment despises. Sac Bee Opinion

State’s Budget Fakery Takes a Toll on Charter Schools
Because state funding is often deferred for months, charter schools must take out bridge loans to pay the bills. The interest costs come at the expense of pupils. LA Times
See also: EdWeek

More Than Half of Suspensions Are for “Willful Defiance” of School Authorities
More than half of all suspensions and a quarter of expulsions in California schools are for “willful defiance” of school authorities, according to a new database that State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson is scheduled to release this Friday. EdSource

A More Confident System
Educators 4 Excellence recently interviewed members for their input on this “Vote of No Confidence” process, the approach to engaging teachers in critical conversations about leadership, and how it could be improved. We heard three overarching themes. Huff Po Op-Ed

Upcoming EdSource Symposium to Tackle State Education Reform
As California embarks on a slate of reforms that could drastically change the face of public education, an upcoming symposium sponsored by EdSource will help the public and policymakers make sense of the complex issues facing educators. EdSource

Senate GOP Leader Revives Parent Trigger, Open Enrollment for Second Act
Two lasting educational imprints from the Schwarzenegger years – the Open Enrollment Act and Parent Trigger – are set for remakes this session under legislation offered by Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff. SI&A Cabinet Report

School Board Transparency a Challenge in Digital Age
School board members are struggling to interpret laws that govern where and how they do business now that as many conversations take place digitally as they do face to face. EdWeek

Children’s Books With Minority Characters Are Hard to Find
Veteran educator Louise Derman Sparks has written volumes on what she calls “anti-bias education” for children.   Sparks firmly believes that children can start absorbing an anti-bias message just from what we read to them because children’s books are one of the first ways we introduce infants to the world. KPCC

The LAUSD Board, via LA Times

The agenda for today’s School Board meeting is packed with hot-topic resolutions, including a plan to streamline LAUSD’s teacher misconduct investigation process, a call to work with state legislators to pass a new teacher dismissal bill, and a plan to reduce student suspensions and discipline for “willful defiance” in LA schools.

These topics have received scads of media coverage and statehouse activity in recent months. LAUSD Board members have obviously been paying attention, and the media is getting behind their resolutions.

Board Member Tamar Galatzan penned an op-ed published Monday in the Huffington Post that explains the rationale behind her resolution to streamline investigations of teachers who have been accused of misconduct in the classroom.

And the LA Times published an editorial piece Tuesday morning urging the School Board to approve Board President Monica Garcia’s resolution that would update schools’ discipline policies across the district and cease the suspension of students for “willful defiance.”

Read on for more details on the resolutions up for vote at today’s School Board meeting.

As Galatzan writes in her op-ed, a key part of her plan is for teacher investigations to be run by a “team of professionally-trained investigators who are beholden only to the truth.”

LA School Report detailed last Tuesday how the resolution is an attempt to reduce the number of LAUSD teachers who wait with full pay in “teacher jails” while the district goes through a lengthy — and costly — investigation process.

Board Member Bennett Kayser, who frequently sides with the teachers union, has signed on as a cosponsor of the resolution, along with Board President Monica Garcia. It’s rare when these three Board members agree with each other, so enjoy it while you can.

Kayser and Galatzan have joined forces on another resolution voicing approval for AB 375, the new teacher dismissal bill that is working its way through the State Assembly thanks to unexpected backing from the California Teachers Association and Senator Alex Padilla.

As we reported, some education advocacy groups have expressed concerns that AB 375 won’t be effective enough when dealing with teachers accused of sexually or physically abusing their students.

But a recent LA Times editorial says it’s a good proposal, and Galatzan and Kayser want Superintendent John Deasy to work with the bill’s author, Joan Buchanan, to make it happen.

Moving from teacher-related issues to student discipline, Board President Monica Garcia has a resolution to update discipline codes in schools across LAUSD to mirror state-level efforts to reduce student suspensions and limit gaps in disciplinary proceedings among different groups of students.

Under Garcia’s resolution, schools must pursue all alternatives to suspension before suspending students; students cannot be suspended for acts of “willful defiance”; and schools must begin implementing discipline policies centered in “restorative justice” techniques that use counseling and peer mediation to resolve discipline issues. (Read more of our coverage on school discipline policies here.)

Kayser will be a busy Board member this meeting: His postponed resolution that would create new rules for magnet schools and their approval process is back up for a vote. (Read about the magnet resolution here.) Kayser’s attempt to bar School Board members who received financial support from charters from voting on charter-related motions will be back up for discussion as well.

Also up for vote on the agenda are several charter renewals and proposals for new charter and pilot schools.

Click here to see the full Board meeting agenda, and remember to follow us at @laschoolreport for live coverage of the meeting.

Previous posts: Teacher Misconduct Proposal Wins Unexpected Support; “Rubber Room” Teachers Rarely Return; Suspension Rates Vary Widely Among Schools; Kayser’s New Magnet Proposal

Teacher Dismissals: How Do We Protect Children and Safeguard Teachers’ Due Process?
Fire them. Dismiss them. Send them back. Let them languish in “teacher jails” while investigations drag on for months — or even years.  There’s got to be a better, quicker and fairer way to get rid of teachers who truly do not belong in the classroom and support those teachers who do. Huff Po Op-Ed by Tamar Galatzan

Deasy Should Be Thrilled With Union’s No Confidence Vote
It means he’s shaking up the moribund Los Angeles Unified School District and bucking the union that has battled every education reform proposed to protect the livelihood of its teachers – a livelihood that has put a stranglehold on education. LA Daily News Editorial

‘Willful Defiance’ in L.A. Schools
A proposal to prevent the suspending of students for a relatively minor infraction deserves the approval of the school board. LA Times Editorial

Sal Castro Dies at 79; L.A. Teacher Played Role in 1968 Protests
Sal Castro, a veteran Los Angeles Unified School District teacher who played a central role in the 1968 “blowouts,” when more than 1,000 students in predominantly Latino high schools walked out of their classrooms to protest inequalities in education, died in his sleep Monday after a long bout with cancer. LA Times
See also: KPCC

Teachers Dislike Breakfast in the Classroom Program, Survey Finds
An L.A. Unified program to serve breakfast in the classroom to make sure students don’t start school hungry has increased pests, created messes and cut down on instructional time, according to a teacher survey released Monday. LA Times

Teach for America: California Schools Need Their Talent
The English Learner Authorization embedded within the intern credential is a very hot issue for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing due to the concerns over incomplete education and preparation of intern teachers who serve students who are English Learners. Silicon Valley Mercury News Op-Ed

District’s Voting Rights Called Into Question
Latinos make up 42 percent of ABC Unified School District, located in Southeastern Los Angeles County. They are the largest ethnic demographic in the 30-school district, but the last time a Latino was elected to the seven member board was in 1997. EdWeek

Family Fee for Half-Day State Preschool Likely to Be Rescinded
A much-disputed daily fee for families with children in state-funded preschool programs will likely be removed from next year’s state budget. EdSource

Greuel Vows School Reform as Garcetti Seeks End to ‘Division’
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel laid out her plans to improve public schools on Thursday, pushing for tougher evaluations of teachers and principals, while opponent Eric Garcetti secured endorsements from a handful of African American leaders. LA Times
See also: LA Daily News, LA School Report, LA Times Now, LA Weekly

Education Leaders Divulge What They Want From LA’s Next Mayor
There’s been a lot of talk about what the next mayor of Los Angeles should do for public education. KPCC talked to three leaders in the education field about what they expect from the city’s next leader. KPCC

Imagine That: Happy Ending to a ‘Parent Trigger’ Petition
The “parent trigger” movement underwent a maturation process in its latest campaign, a petition to restructure 24th Street Elementary in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Unlike in previous campaigns, there were no lawsuits against the district, no claims by parents that they had been duped into signing the petition. LA Times Op-Ed

Defiance No Reason to Suspend Students, Board President Says
Administrators in the Los Angeles Unified School District would no longer be allowed to suspend students for mouthing off or other acts of “willful defiance” under a groundbreaking school board resolution set to be proposed next week. LA Times
See also: LA School Report

Bill Makes It (a Tiny Bit) Easier to Fire Abusive Teachers
A bill that would have made it easier to fire teachers accused of molesting students or committing other serious crimes died in committee last summer – a victim of the most powerful force in state politics today: teachers unions. There’s a new version of the bill in the Legislature this year. Pasadena Star News Op-Ed

LAUSD Reform Agenda Gets High Marks From Civic Groups
A new coalition of civil rights groups, led by the United Way, released a poll today showing strong support for reforms taking place in Los Angeles Unified and calling for an even more aggressive approach to improving student achievement and increasing local control of neighborhood schools. LA Daily News

LAUSD Summer Enrichment Programs Reduced Again
The Los Angeles Unified School District announced today that funding limits are forcing it to reduce its summer enrichment programming, which includes academic, fitness and other enrichments like art, music and drama activities. KPCC
See also: LA Times

With Police in Schools, More Children in Court
As school districts across the country consider placing more police officers in schools, youth advocates and judges are raising alarm about what they have seen in the schools where officers are already stationed: a surge in criminal charges against children for misbehavior that many believe is better handled in the principal’s office. NY Times

APU to Hold First-Ever Spanish Language Spelling Bee for L.A. County High School Students
Native Spanish speakers and Spanish class students from throughout Los Angeles County will compete in the first-ever Spanish language spelling bee on at 2 p.m. Saturday at Azusa Civic Auditorium. LA Daily News

Eric Garcetti Avoids Schoolyard Tussle With Wendy Greuel
On the heels of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa calling on the two mayoral candidates to step up and communicate their education platforms during his State of the City address Tuesday night, Wendy Greuel stepped up with a challenge to Eric Garcetti. KPCC
See also: LA School Report, Annenberg News, LA Times

LAUSD Superintendent Fires Lemon Teachers
The speed with which Deasy moves and speaks is well documented. He brings an uncomfortable impatience to the LAUSD supe’s job as he moves to increase the types of schools available to students (known as School Choice), raise achievement on test scores and graduation rates, and require accountability from L.A.’s more than 20,000 tenured-for-life teachers. LA Weekly

Education Coalition Wants to Stay Course in L.A. Unified
A coalition of groups, including the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, has launched an effort to put education at the center of the mayoral race and civic attention. LA Times
See also: LA School Report

Operation Back in School Sweeps up Truant Kids
Operation Back in School, a multi-agency task force in the Harbor area Wednesday to sweep up truant kids who should be in school. No citations were issued in a friendlier approach to the problem that offered counseling for kids and parents. Daily Breeze

Parents Choose Unique School Takeover Model in ‘Trigger’ Vote
In the latest test of California’s controversial “parent trigger” law, South Los Angeles parents have voted to transform their struggling neighborhood school into a charter school hybrid beginning this fall, organizers announced Wednesday. Hechinger Report
See also: LA Times, LA School Report

Garcetti and Greuel Trade Barbs on Union Support on Eve of Debate
Greuel has argued that her record as controller proves her judgment will not be swayed by campaign contributors. Appearing with school board member Garcia at a high school in Garcetti’s district, the controller contended that it is her former council colleague who is in the thrall of a union — United Teachers Los Angeles — which is supporting his bid for mayor. LA Times

Gates’ Warning on Test Scores
In a recent op-ed article, he cautions against overusing students’ standardized test scores in evaluating how well teachers are doing their jobs. LA Times Editorial

Here’s Why Students in Los Angeles Aren’t Going to College
The stakes just got higher for high-schoolers in Los Angeles—but will they be prepared? TakePart

Qualified Math Teachers Elusive for Struggling Students, Studies Find
In many schools in the United States, students struggling the most in mathematics at the start of high school have the worst odds of getting a qualified teacher in the subject, new research finds. EdWeek

When a Teacher Is 2 Feet Tall
This year, robots will be teaching everything from math to vocabulary to nutrition inside classrooms in California and New York, a move the researchers call a first in American education. WSJ

Alemany Enjoys Unified State at Championship Assembly
When Alemany celebrated the school’s first state championship last year, the boys basketball program had the spotlight all to itself. LA Daily News

Bullies Shoot 8th Grade Student With BB Gun in Class, Victim Says
LA school district police plan to investigate a shooting incident at a Carson middle school where a BB gun injured a 13-year-old student. NBC LA

Obama Budget Would Allocate $75 Billion Over Next Decade to Preschool
In an ambitious and highly anticipated budget plan, President Barack Obama called Wednesday for allocating $75 billion over the next 10 years to expand public preschool by raising the federal tax on tobacco products. EdSource

The positive takeaway is that even three years ago (which is when the data used in this interactive was sampled), LAUSD’s rate of suspensions and expulsions was lower than in many other school districts in the nation.

While San Fernando High, the Los Angeles school with the highest suspension rate, had suspended 24 percent of its students, other schools in states like Georgia and Alabama were suspending 80 to 100 percent of their students.

But that doesn’t mean school discipline in LAUSD is in a good place — as LA School Report mentioned Tuesday, a host of recent studies on discipline policies in LA schools show, minority students are targeted for suspension and expulsion in far higher numbers than their white peers, and that high schools in Los Angeles vary widely in what percentage of students they suspend.

Previous posts:  Linking Suspensions and Health Risks; Suspension Rates Vary Widely Among Schools

The new report, which looked at middle and high schools across the country, finds significant discipline gaps between white, black, and Hispanic students. In Los Angeles, suspension rates vary school-to-school: The study found 54 high schools with large suspension numbers, but the district also had 81 high schools with low suspension rates.

The discipline gap is nationwide: “The report found that one in three black middle school males were suspended once or more during the school year,” the Huffington Post reported. “The numbers were worse for racial minorities with disabilities: 36 percent of black students with disabilities in secondary school were suspended at least once.”

According to KPCC’s coverage of the suspension report, “Researchers found that while suspension rates for Asian and white students remained largely unchanged between 1973 and 2010, suspension rates for African-American and Latino students doubled.”

According an Education Week interview with one of the researchers involved in the report, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Chicago are districts that have many schools with high suspension rates.

LA School Report has already noted that a 2012 study from the California Endowment that examined LAUSD and two other California districts found that high suspension rates are correlated with low academic achievement, higher crime rates, higher school dropout rates, and ultimately higher health risks.

New Analysis Bolsters Case Against Suspension, Researchers Say
The results of a new analysis of out-of-school-suspension data that show staggering rates of the punishment’s use at some schools are even more reason to rethink that common method of disciplining students, researchers said Monday. EdWeek
See also: KPCC, EdSource, Yahoo

LA Unified Off Track to Meet Deadline for College Prep Courses
Los Angeles Unified School District has some work ahead of it to meet its deadline for all students to pass college-preparatory classes in order to graduate. EdSource
See also: LA Daily News

California Federation of Teachers Lobbies Lawmakers
It’s lobby day for the California Federation of Teachers, which means members of the state’s second-biggest teachers union (after the California Teachers Association) are in Sacramento to petition lawmakers. Sac Bee

Shepard Fairey Taps LAUSD Students for Ideas
Fairey is the third high-profile L.A. artist who has signed on to participate in the “Arts Matter” public awareness campaign by the L.A. Fund for Public Education, which plasters artwork on city buses and billboards to help get their message out. LA Times

Targeting Classroom Predators: The Encore
Last June saw one of the rawest displays ever of the power wielded by the half-million-plus members of the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers. SD Union Tribune

LAO Seeks Conditions on Brown’s Surplus Property-Charter Proposal
The governor’s plan to provide charter schools with more access to surplus property appears to have support within the Legislature – but lawmakers also seem interested in conditioning the proposal. SI&A Cabinet Report

Reform Falls Short
Lest there was any doubt, it is now clear that the pension bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed last September was not reform, it was merely a tweak. San Jose Mercury Editorial

Long Beach Has Jumpstart on Transitional Kindergarten
When California school districts were required by state law to start a new early kindergarten class for some 4-year-olds for the first time this year, Long Beach Unified had an easier task than most: to simply expand the existing “preppy kindergarten” program it started five years ago. EdSource

Teacher Dismissal Bill Off and Running With Committee Approval
A bill intended to make it quicker and less costly to dismiss teachers received a 7-0 approval from the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday, and its author – the chair of the committee, Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo – received much praise from her colleagues for taking on a contentious issue. EdSource
See also: Sac Bee

Calif. Districts’ Waiver Bid Now in Review Phase
The U.S. Department of Education and a band of outside peer reviewers are now weighing the details of a precedent-setting waiver application from nine districts in California that want flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act even though their state’s bid for a waiver was unsuccessful. EdWeek

L.A. Unified Filling Security Jobs Created After Newtown Shooting
Los Angeles Unified has hired more than 750 security aides in response to the 26 deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. About 250 openings remain. LA Times

California’s Prop 30 Gains Could Be Eaten Up by Crisis in Teacher Pension System
A recent report from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found a $70 billion shortfall in state teachers’ retirement plans — and that deficit has the potential to suck up a significant amount of Prop 30 revenue. HuffPo

Atlanta Cheating Scandal Reverberates
The criminal indictments last week of retired Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly L. Hall and 34 other educators for their alleged roles in a far-reaching cheating scandal could have widespread fallout and potentially undermine efforts in other school districts to improve the academic achievement of poor and minority students, according to education leaders. EdWeek

Winners of Head Start Grant Re-Competition Announced
Every one of the four California Head Start operators required to compete for their federal grant in a new process aimed at improving program quality was told Tuesday that their grant had been renewed. But some of those grants will be smaller next year, as the money will now be divided between additional grantees. EdSource

Educators and Safety Experts Reject NRA-Funded Plan
Leading educational and school safety groups rejected key recommendations of a National Rifle Association-funded school safety report released Tuesday. MSNBC

5 Disruptive Education Trends That Address American Inequality
Fixing how we teach our children is of paramount importance. What if the solution also started to fix America’s broader socioeconomic problems? New ways of thinking about edtech just might start that process. Co.Exist

Calif. Bill Would Require Panic Alarms in Schools
Lawmakers gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would require panic alarms to be installed throughout school campuses in California, but only if the federal government pays for it. AP

School-to-Prison Pipeline Presents Growing Concern for Administrators
Federal mediators and public school administrators in Meridian, Miss., have reached a landmark agreement to launch a rewards-based disciplinary plan, aimed at keeping in the classroom more black students who routinely received harsher disciplinary action when accused of relatively minor infractions. LA Daily News

An Urban School District That Works — Without Miracles or Teach For America
Union City makes an unlikely poster child for education reform. It’s a poor community with an unemployment rate 60 percent higher than the national average. Three-quarters of the students live in homes where only Spanish is spoken. A quarter are thought to be undocumented, living in fear of deportation. WaPo Opinion

The Secret to Fixing School Discipline? Change the Behavior of Adults
A sea change is coursing slowly but resolutely through this nation’s K-12 education system. More than 23,000 schools out of 132,000 nationwide have or are discarding a highly punitive approach to school discipline in favor of supportive, compassionate, and solution-oriented methods. New American Media

Poll Finds the Less You Make, the More You Like Brown’s School Finance Reform
An even 50 percent of respondents told pollsters they favored – while 39 percent opposed – the idea of having “some money diverted from middle and upper class children to low income children and English language learners.” EdSource

Lockyer Widens Request for Legal Opinion on School Bond Campaigns
California Treasurer Bill Lockyer on Monday expanded his request for a legal opinion to determine if some local education officials and the financial underwriters they hire are violating state law by campaigning for school bond measures. LA Times

Long Beach Middle Schools to Start Day an Hour Later
The Long Beach school board voted Monday to push start times at the district’s five middle schools from 8 to 9 a.m. — a cost-cutting move officials believe will also boost student success. LA Times

Bill Clinton Endorses Wendy Greuel for Los Angeles Mayor
Former President Bill Clinton weighed in on the Los Angeles mayoral race Monday with an endorsement for City Controller Wendy Greuel. HuffPo

Orville Wright Middle School in Westchester Reinvents Itself in Bid to Improve Enrollment
Trying to reverse a plunge in enrollment and the effects of a high-profile principal kerfuffle, Orville Wright Middle School in Westchester – currently an aerospace magnet where students learn how to use flight simulators – is trying to recast itself as a magnet school with an expanded focus. Daily Breeze

St. Genevieve High’s ‘Cabaret’ Draws Ire of Conservative Catholics
St. Genevieve High in Panorama City, which won accolades as a National School of Character, now finds itself under fire, targeted by a cadre of conservative Catholics hoping to halt the production of its spring musical, “Cabaret.” LA Daily News

Partnership Blends Science and English Proficiency
Pupils at El Verano Elementary School are learning about science as they also improve their English-language skills. Their instruction is part of a federally funded collaborative project between the 4,600-student Sonoma district and the Exploratorium, a science museum in San Francisco. EdWeek

Via Education Writers Association

“Punishing Numbers” — a widely-noted investigative series depicting harsh school discipline rules in California schools — has won the top investigative journalism prize for medium-sized newsrooms in the 2012 National Awards for Education Reporting. The series was a joint reporting effort shared by Vanessa Romo at Los Angeles public radio station KPCC, Krissy Clark at San Francisco public radio station KQED, and Susan Ferriss at the Center for Public Integrity. You can read the stories in the “Punishing Numbers” series here.

Donations From Independent Groups Shaping City, LAUSD Elections
Independent expenditures continue to dominate the school board election, with reform- and union-backed organizations battling to guide the future of the nation’s second-largest school district. LA Daily News
See also: LA School Report

In Their Words: L.A. Mayor Candidates Answer the Times’ Questions
Readers will find that some answers are clear and emphatic, and some are carefully hedged. A couple of candidates left questions unanswered. But in a race where the competitors are scrambling to break away from the pack, voters can find a few revealing contrasts. LA Times

California Trails Nation in Reading, Math and Science, Report Finds
California has largely trailed the rest of the country in reading, mathematics and science in the last decade, according to an analysis released Thursday of test results from the five most populous states. LA Times
See also: SI&A Cabinet Report

Charter Discipline: A Tale of Two Students
Does penalizing students for a laundry list of common infractions—both minor and more serious—train students to be self-disciplined, or lead some to become disaffected from school?  At one Chicago charter school, the school community’s verdict is mixed. EdWeek

Fathers Read to Children at South L.A. School
Many 99th Street Elementary students don’t have fathers at home, so police and California Highway Patrol officers fill in at the Donuts With Dads event. LA Times

LAUSD Considers Carpenter for Pilot Program to Combat Enrollment Fraud
More than 200 present, past and future parents of students at Carpenter Community Charter School in Studio City came to meet seven of the top Los Angeles Unified School District officials to answer questions about the future of their school, and how they can combat fraudulent enrollment. Sherman Oaks Patch

Study Compliments and Questions Brown’s Funding Formula
An analysis by the Public Policy Institute of California, released Wednesday, praises Gov. Jerry Brown’s overall plan for school finance reform, while raising questions about elements of the formula that would steer substantially more money to disadvantaged students. EdSource

Huge Spending Gaps Between School Districts, Report Finds
Vast inequities still exist in education funding across the nation, contributing to an academic achievement gap that separates the students at well-funded schools from those who attend campuses with fewer resources, according to a report released Tuesday. LA Times

Superintendents in D.C. to Talk District Waiver With Duncan
Superintendents representing a coalition of 10 California school districts, including LAUSD, are scheduled to meet with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan today to make a personal pitch for a district waiver from provisions of No Child Left Behind, which they plan to formally submit next week. EdSource

Schools in Crisis, Reforms Not Working, U.S. Federal Panel Declares
A federal commission on Tuesday said the U.S. education system had “thoroughly stacked the odds” against impoverished students and warned that an aggressive reform agenda embraced by both Democrats and Republicans had not done enough to improve public schools. Reuters

Charter Schools’ Discipline Policies Face Scrutiny
As the number of charter schools continues to grow, one facet of their autonomy—the ability to set and enforce independent disciplinary standards—has raised difficult questions about whether those schools are pushing out students who pose behavior or academic challenges and how their policies affect regular public schools. EdWeek

Calpers Will Sell Its Investments in Gun Makers
The investment committee of Calpers, the biggest American pension fund, voted Tuesday to divest itself of its holdings in two manufacturers of guns and high-capacity ammunition clips banned in California. NY Times

St. Genevieve High Honors Former President Jimmy Carter
A statesman, author and diplomat, Jimmy Carter hasn’t often found himself at a loss for words.  But on Tuesday, facing a wall covered with photos and mementos of his friendship with the community at St. Genevieve High School, the nation’s 39th president found it difficult to express himself. LA Daily News

Abuse of School Meals Funds Target of Cannella Bill
Acting on the financial abuses by school districts that “literally take food from the mouths of children,” a state legislator has introduced the School Lunch Protection Act. The Californian

Federal Grant Prospect Reignites Kindergarten-Assessment Debate
A federal grant program in the works to help states jump-start kindergarten-entry assessments is renewing debate among early-childhood educators about the benefits and pitfalls of evaluating young children. EdWeek

Congressional Panel Calls for Larger Federal Role in Directing Schools
A white paper released Tuesday on improving educational competitiveness and closing the achievement gap called for a significantly larger federal role in the management of the nation’s public school system. SI&A Cabinet Report

Parents, Teachers, Students Oppose Crenshaw High Restructure Plan
Parents, students and teachers plan to rally in front of Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Tuesday in protest of a proposal to restructure low-performing Crenshaw High School. LA Times
See also: KPCC, LA School Report

Districts Preparing Their Own Request for NCLB Waiver
They’re hoping that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will be impressed by their size, serving a million schoolchildren, and their willingness to agree to conditions that Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education rejected. EdSource Today

One in Five of New Charter Schools Are in California
California students also now comprise about one fifth of children enrolled in charter schools nationally – 494,000 out of the national total of 2.3 million. EdSource

School Discipline Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated
A recent Education Week commentary by Los Angeles Unified assistant superintendent Earl Perkins gives us a good opportunity to remember that we shouldn’t make school-wide discipline issues more complicated than they need to be. This Week in Education (Paul Bruno)

LAUSD Wants an Exemption From Proposed Water Tax
The Los Angeles Unified school board is poised Tuesday to seek an exemption from a proposed countywide clean-water fee that would drain nearly $5 million annually from the district’s general fund. LA Daily News

A Wing and a Prayer
The aviation mechanics school in a hangar at Van Nuys Airport does something that education reformers and the business community say they want from schools: It trains young people for careers — in this case for skilled, well-paid jobs. LA Times Editorial

Parents and Community Can Play Key Roles in School Success
Educators are turning to parents and outside partners in formal and grassroots efforts that boost morale, achievement, and students’ sense of security. EdWeek

How to Keep Talented Teachers From Leaving
New teachers face high-pressure demands, with little support, such that more than half leave the profession within the first five years. These teachers need to see opportunities for career advancement, better compensation, and meaningful evaluation and professional development. Christian Science Monitor