Here’s the Friday, January 11 letter in which LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy describes his concerns about California State Superintendent Tom Torlakson’s recommendation to reduce standardized testing: It’s not that Deasy opposes all changes to the current testing and accountability system. LAUSD is one of eight districts seeking a waiver from No Child Left Behind from Washington....

Tamar Galatzan, Warren Fletcher Look at Reforming System for Investigating Teachers A year after the Miramonte sex-abuse scandal sparked a flood of teacher misconduct complaints, a Los Angeles Unified board member and the teachers’ union president have launched separate efforts to devise a more efficient system for investigating allegations. LA Daily News To Lock Classroom...

Garcia Leads in Fundraising for L.A. School Board Financial data released Thursday show that Monica Garcia raised $174,288 last year, far outdistancing the combined total of four challengers vying to unseat her. LA Times Southern California Schools to Benefit From Gov. Jerry Brown’s Budget California’s public schools are the big winners in Gov. Jerry Brown’s...

L.A. County Democratic Party Endorses LAUSD Board Candidates The Los Angeles County Democratic Party voted late Tuesday to endorse incumbent Steve Zimmer and newcomer Antonio Sanchez for the LAUSD board but declined to support board President Monica Garcia or any of the four rivals for her Eastside seat. LA Daily News New Silver Lake Principal...

State Schools Chief Urges Cut in Number of Tests Next Year Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson says second-graders would not be tested in math and English, and most high school tests would be dropped. L.A. Unified chief expresses reservations. LA Times See also: KPCC, LA Daily News Student Test Scores Can Identify Effective Teachers,...

Looking for an independent source of information about how LAUSD is doing?  You might want to check out Ed-Data, which is managed by the Education Data Partnership and recently uploaded 2011 – 2012 Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores for school districts across the state. As you can see, LAUSD’s API score showed...

When the California standardized test scores were released last week, the Daily News lauded LAUSD for “its best showing ever.” Superintendent John Deasy gave the district (and himself) a pat on the back, saying, “We’ve put a great deal of emphasis in this district on English-language arts, we’ve put a great deal of emphasis on...

The Daily News reports (see: LAUSD makes its best showing ever on STAR tests) that LAUSD students made significant improvement over last year in their performance on the state-required standardized test results, also known as the STAR tests: “48 percent of LAUSD students scored proficient or advanced in English, up from 44 percent last year. Math proficiency...

California test scores: State to release results at 10 a.m. KPCC: The tests in English and math measure whether school districts meet state education standards. Students between the second and 11th grades take the exam. Steinberg’s school accountability rewrite set for passage SI&A: Legislation approved Thursday would remake the state’s accountability system for public schools by reducing the...