Education Standards

The Parent Trigger Warriors of Watts: How a Special Forces Hero and a Group of Moms Took Back Weigand Elementary

LAUSD's Grumpy Old Man Richard Vladovic Could Squelch Reform

Monica Ratliff: The Woman Who May Change L.A.

John Deasy is the most admired school superintendent in city history. But this fifth-grade teacher isn't impressed

Democratic Party Schism over Scandalous Schools: Gloria Romero, Slimed By Teacher Unions, Says Sober Up

See also: "LAUSD Supe Fires Lemon Teachers" and "Firing the Bad Teachers." 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 ... More >>

Wendy Greuel And Eric Garcetti Debate, But Expected Fight On Education Fizzles

Mayoral candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti met on Thursday night for their first one-on-one debate. But on the hot topic of the week -- education reform -- an expected confrontation fizzled.Greuel did challenge Garcetti on the issue, but she passed up an opportunity to put Garcetti on the def ... More >>

LAUSD Superintendent Fires Lemon Teachers

Once nearly unheard of, heads are rolling under John Deasy

LAUSD School Board District 4 Election: Absentee Ballot Results Show Steve Zimmer Leading Kate Anderson

With just under 24,000 absentee ballots counted by the city clerk, incumbent Steve Zimmer has a significant 16-point lead over challenger Kate Anderson. Zimmer has tried as best he can to hold the middle ground between the teachers union and the reformers. But middle grounds are hard to come by in ... More >>

Mayoral Candidate Kevin James and Education Reformers Speak Out About Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel's Silence on Parent Trigger

UPDATE, 5 p.m.: Eric Garcetti breaks silence on Parent Trigger. After the jump. UPDATE, 4 p.m.: Wendy Greuel tells L.A. Weekly she supports the Parent Trigger. Eric Garcetti is now the only mayoral candidate who remains to be silent. After the jump. After Los Angeles Unified School District board ... More >>

Los Angeles Unified School District Approves Historic Parent Trigger, L.A. Mayoral Candidates Weigh In Or Stay Mum

Elected board members of the Los Angeles Unified School District -- the second largest public school system in the country -- unanimously approved a Parent Trigger for the 24th Street Elementary School in West Adams. It's a first for L.A. Unified, and Los Angeles mayoral candidates are weighing in o ... More >>

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Pours $1 Million into LAUSD Elections to Oust Steve Zimmer, Elect Monica Garcia

See also, "LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons," and "Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?"Los Angeles Unified School District, whose teachers union UTLA has squelched attempts to raise student learning by making ineffective certified teachers relearn subject matter and skills, just attracted $1 mill ... More >>

Antonio Villaraigosa Led The Way On Education Reform, But His Potential Successors Are Reluctant To Pick Up The Torch

For the last eight years, education reformers have had a staunch ally in the L.A. mayor's office. From the start of his administration, Antonio Villaraigosa showed he was willing to fight the teachers' unions, and to pay a political price for it.But in a few months, Villaraigosa will be gone. And at ... More >>

10 Stupidest California Bills That Legislators Are Trying to Slam Through at Final Hour

The last possible moment for California's bumbling state senators and assemblymen to nudge their pet bills onto Governor Jerry Brown's desk is this Friday, August 31 at midnight. Needless to say, the state Capitol is in a state of fluttering papers/utter mayhem right now. It's hard enough to know ... More >>

Firing the Bad Teachers: Ted Olson and LAUSD Parents Sue

Eric Bauman v. Gloria Romero in Assembly District 46

Academia Semillas, a Failing School, Escapes Closure

At LAUSD, big friends help

LAUSD Contract Deal Between John Deasy and Warren Fletcher: Bad Teachers Might be Ousted at Schools Freed from Old Rules

John Deasy, Los Angeles schools supe, might finally have something to grin about.​ By Hillel Aron It was a real kumbaya moment at the LAUSD school board today as Superintendent John Deasy and teachers union President Warren Fletcher held hands and announced that, after months of contract talks ... More >>

Eli Broad, L.A. Elite, Offers $250K Prize to Charter Schools That Serve Low-Income Kids

New YorkerEli Broad, lover of L.A. art and equality in education.​Opponents of the burgeoning charter-school industry like to paint it as a corporate wolf in "reform" clothing -- stealing money from struggling district-run schools while receiving an even steadier cash flow from billionaires. ... More >>

Gloria Romero: Watching Out for the Kids

Newt Gingrich and the NAACP, Together Over Criminal Justice Reform and Century Blvd. Billboard

NAACPPremiering on Century Blvd.​What do Newt Gingrich and the NAACP have in common? Starting today, it's a new billboard in town. The latest addition to LA's sea of giant-ass signs is on Century Boulevard, compliments of the NAACP, and states that in the past 23 years state spending on jails ha ... More >>

Yolie Flores, Departing L. A. Unified School Board Member, Got Pushback From Student Anti-Reform Pawns

Ted SoquiYolie Flores​Yolie Flores, lifelong voice for families and students, recently decided not to return to her chair on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board. Her disheartening enlightenment about the state of the district is chronicled in this week's L.A. Weekly print story 'The Educ ... More >>

California's Parent Trigger

How McKinley in Compton became the first school taken over by parents under a radical new law

Steve Zimmer Anti-Reform, Yolie Flores For Reform: The Stark LAUSD School Board Drama Unfolding After Historic ACLU Settlement

Anti-reformer Zimmer ​Steve Zimmer, elected by "sophisticates" on the Westside, is starkly shown as the leading anti-reformist on the LAUSD Board of Education in a fascinating LA Times story about how United Teachers Los Angeles got snookered by the pro bono American Civil Liberties Union, Pub ... More >>

Has Ray Cortines Got Cojones?

If not, LAUSD board could buckle to union over L.A. Times teacher-test-score expose

California's Big Whiff on Education-Reform Money

What the hell led to the "Race to the Top" rejection from Obama?

New And Underperforming L.A. Schools To Be Run By Outside Groups

File photo.​Protesters gathered outside Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Tuesday afternoon as its board of directors pondered recommendations to allow 10 outside operators to take over several new campuses and underperforming schools. United Teachers Los Angeles, the union rep ... More >>

LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons

Why firing the desk-sleepers, burnouts, hotheads and other failed teachers is all but impossible

How Superintendent David Brewer Ran Aground

The admiral's sinking ship

Nasty Battle for Classroom Control

L.A., which educates one of every 12 California students, is ground zero in the Education Wars

The Takeover King

Is Mayor V betraying his old-time union allies? Or rescuing L.A.’s troubled public school system? Whatever the answer, he faces the biggest risks of his political career.

Theories of Devolution

Two draft plans for LA Unified would divide the district into dozens of smaller entities

The Battle for L.A. Unified

Antonio, Roy and the UTLA sharpen their swords

The New Math of High School Graduation

School board passes A–G requirement

Reviving Education

Grassroots advocates for public schools are raising their voices — and getting heard

New Jack Activists

The Coalition for Educational Justice is fighting generations of neglect with a secret weapon — students

A Personal Triumph — AT RISK

Classroom aide who overcame cerebral palsy could lose job under school reform

He’s Back

This time, it’s the Riordan-ator

Beyond Belief

Screen-door Jesus and a zero dropout rate

An 'A' in Fraud

It was too good -- and too bad -- to be true. For three years, investigators conclude, Manual Arts High School administrators graduated ineligible students and tampered with students' grades

Justice for All

The old-school belief in racial equality through public education gets new blood

Whose Children Do We Cherish?

L.A. education advocates are raising the question — and, finally, getting answers

Charting Their Own Course

Even the best charter schools are no panacea for what ails L.A. Unified

A Choice Experiment

Charter schools’ hype outpaces results

Held Back

The Miserable State of Black Education

A School System is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Reform on the Cheap

Schools lose money, control and programs

Inglewood School Chief Dies

District left facing fiscal, legal woes

Riordan’s Stealth Reformers

Dual role for corporate consultants in school power plays

Compton's Quagmire

Squeeze Play

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