text: CA lawmakers retooling bill to help CAHSEE-less students graduate
  State politicians and educators are scrambling to cope with the fallout after the abrupt cancelation of an exam by the California Department of Education left over 5,000 high school students across the state — 492 of them in LA Unified –unable to graduate, despite having completed all other necessary course work. The California High School...
  By Elizabeth Weise | August 19, 2015
  CA charter schools association to LAUSD: ‘We’re not the problem’
  After contentious LAUSD school board elections in which the California Charter Schools Association was widely criticized for negative campaigning and accused of draining money from traditional district schools, the association pushed back today asserting that its opponents have mischaracterized the group as detrimental to district. In a conference call with reporters, the association presented data that...
  By Mike Szymanski | July 28, 2015
  LA Unified educator among five California Teachers of the Year
  A middle-school teacher at LA Unified has been named one of five recipients of the 2015 California Teachers of the Year Award from the California Department of Education. Lovelyn Marquez-Prueher is an eighth-grade English teacher at Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes. She has been teaching for 11 years, the last six at Dodson. Marquez-Prueher...
  By Craig Clough | October 23, 2014
  22 LAUSD elementary schools make state’s ‘distinguished’ list
  Nearly two dozen LA Unified schools were among the 424 elementary schools cited by the state today as California Distinguished Schools. The announcement came from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson who said, “I applaud these strong, thriving schools that are making such impressive strides in preparing their students for continued success.” The 2014...
  By Vanessa Romo | April 30, 2014
  Investigation: Nearly 1,000 Native Children Died in Federal Boarding Schools
  Podcast: What a Mentorship Mindset Can Do for Student Motivation
  Black and Hispanic Voters Say Democrats Aren’t Focused Enough on K-12 Education
  Teen Activist Rhea Maniar on the Power of Abortion to Turn Out Young Voters
  Smarter Balanced Field Tests around CA starting tomorrow
  As California gets ready to transition to a new assessment system, the state is set to rollout its Smarter Balanced Field Test starting tomorrow. As part of the field test, the state will be examining technological capacity and the quality of test questions, while helping students and teachers prepare for next year’s first operational test,...
  By Yana Gracile | March 24, 2014
  Stanford report shows advantages for LAUSD charter students*
  In its first analysis of LA Unified schools, Stanford University found that the typical student in a charter school made greater academic gains than a counterpart in a traditional school. “Charter School Performance in Los Angeles,” a report from Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), found that a student in an urban LA charter...
  By LA School Report | March 15, 2014
  Torlakson, Democrats backing measure to expand pre-K
  Democratic lawmakers and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson are sponsoring new legislation to provide free public preschool to every four-year-old child in California. The Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2014, introduced by Darrel Steinberg (D-Sacramento) and co-sponsored by Torlakson and Early Edge California, will expand access to transitional kindergarten programs to all four year old children, no...
  By Chase Niesner | January 10, 2014
  California is Only State Skipping Student Progress Survey*
  A new survey shows how states are implementing data systems for evaluating students’ progress, but California, which has most public school students of any state, declined to participate this year. Patricia de Cos, Deputy Executive Director of the California State Board of Education, told LA School Report that her office was simply unable to fill out the requisite forms before...
  By Chase Niesner | November 20, 2013
  California Releases Updated School Quality Snapshot Tool
  The California Department of Education’s School Quality Snapshot tool, a searchable database providing essential information on the performance of individual school sties across the state, has been updated with the latest possible information. Since the program was unveiled last October, more than 115,000 “snapshots” of local schools have been downloaded by Californians interested in learning...
  By Chase Niesner | October 7, 2013
  Former Union Aide Joins StudentsFirst As CA Director
  In a sign of its growing presence in California, StudentsFirst, the nationwide education reform organization headed by Michelle Rhee, announced today the hiring of Jovan Agee as the organization’s California State Director. Agee, who served eight years as the director of political and legislative affairs of UDW/AFSCME Local 3930, a homecare providers union, will be...
  By Chase Niesner | September 16, 2013