Three for LAUSD Board – and for Education Reform The result could either confirm the slow move toward innovation and reform in the nation’s second-largest school district. Or it could reverse the course, destroying the few steps the district has taken in recent years to shake up the old, failing education structure. LA Daily News Editorial...

Deasy Wants 30% of Teacher Evaluations Based on Test Scores L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy announced Friday that as much as 30% of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on student test scores, setting off more contention in the nation’s second-largest school system in the weeks before a critical Board of Education election. LA Times...

Held in the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex, Wednesday night’s packed United Way of Greater LA School Board candidates forum provided a somewhat clearer picture of the politics and priorities of the four East LA District 2 candidates who were present. But some candidates were more direct than others about their views on a range of sensitive...

If you were running for School Board it might seem obvious you would need to be prepared to answer this simple question: “Do you support current LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy?” But at last week’s District 6 candidate forum for the Los Angeles School Board race in the San Fernando Valley, this question made for some...

“For the last eight years, education reformers have had a staunch ally in the L.A. mayor’s office,” writes LA Weekly reporter Gene Maddaus in a recent roundup of the Mayoral candidates’ education priorities. “But in a few months, Villaraigosa will be gone, and at the moment it appears that his successor will not be as strong an advocate...

Campaign questionnaires don’t always yield reflective or candid responses from candidates, but a majority of LAUSD Board candidates have now responded to a questionnaire on the League of Women Voters’ Smart Voter website and their answers shed some light on what they think are the biggest issues facing LAUSD — as well as what’s needed to improve...

Ex-LAUSD Teacher Accused of Abusing 20 Children A former Los Angeles Unified School District teacher was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of committing lewd acts and sexually abusing 20 children and an adult, law enforcement authorities said. LA Times See also: ABC LA Plan to Supply LAUSD Students With Tablet Computers Wins Key Vote Los Angeles...

Saturday provides dueling campaign events in LAUSD Board District 2, which includes Central and East Los Angeles. Candidate Robert Skeels is inviting supporters to walk the precincts in Boyle Heights to get out the word on his campaign (for details, click here). Perhaps not coincidentally, it’s the same day that his opponent, incumbent Monica Garcia...

L.A. Unified to Overhaul Struggling Crenshaw High Calling Crenshaw the worst in L.A. Unified, Supt. John Deasy gets the green light to turn the landmark campus into three magnet schools. LA Times See also: KPCC, KCAL, LA School Report 24th Street Elementary School the Target of New Parent Petition Parents at an underperforming Los Angeles...

“Thanks to the district’s successful approach to discipline, the number of days lost to suspension in 2010-11 plummeted to 26,286, from 46,006—an impressive 43 percent drop in one year… Today only a small fraction of our students get suspended, and the numbers are shrinking.”  – LAUSD’s Earl Perkins, in Education Week (A Successful Discipline Policy...