The Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA put outs a daily Education News Roundup that’s a good source of information about education in LA and statewide. So it’s great when the newsletter includes stories from LA School Report like it did on Thursday (with Hillel Aron’s story about who might be the next President...

Districts are increasingly being asked to consider transgendered students’ academic and emotional needs, according to a New Yorker article published earlier this year (About A Boy). LAUSD has already begun to address the needs of transgendered students with its own student participation policy, and now there’s a proposed state law (AB 1266) that would call on every district...

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy and perhaps a couple of School Board members would rather give teachers raises and fund programs with any new money coming in rather than hire back teachers and lower class sizes. But is it up to them?  Hiring teachers and lowering class sizes is contractually required, according to LAUSD teacher Brent...

This is a guest commentary written by LAUSD math teacher (and Hope Change Choices blog host) Rustum Jacob about some teachers’ decision to transfer out of Weigand Avenue Elementary School: As a teacher , if I’d been in the same shoes as the Weigand teachers, I would have left because of loyalty and respect for...

A new feature in the LA Weekly claims Board member-elect Monica Ratliff “may be the most powerful woman in Los Angeles” (given the dearth of elected officials on the City Council) and compares LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy to former police chief William Bratton. Written by LA School Report contributor HIllel Aron, The Woman Who May Change L.A. notes that...

There are 210 charter schools in LAUSD this year, according to the California Charter Schools Association. Many of them hope to grow and expand within LA. However, as part of the continued growth of charter schools nationwide, some Los Angeles-area charter school networks are spreading to other parts of the country, either by starting new...

This is a guest commentary written by LAUSD teachers Jeff Austin and Edward Kusell-Zigelman to Mayor-elect Garcetti about what he can do to be a leader on education issues in City Hall:   Dear Mayor-Elect Garcetti, A few weeks ago, residents of Los Angeles made their voices heard by voting you into office. We’d like to...

There are two interesting opinion pieces on the parent trigger in the LA Times  — both focused on the aftermath of the parent trigger petition at Weigand Elementary but coming at the issue from different points of view: One of the two highlights the laudable desire to make sure that teachers and parents are fully...