CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 7, 2013 | By Seema Mehta, Howard Blume and Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles' two mayoral candidates said Tuesday that they support making teacher evaluations public, going well beyond a level of disclosure that is supported by top school district officials. City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti said they backed the release of individual performance evaluations based on so-called "value-added" formulas, which are controversial both locally and nationwide. These measures use the past performance of students on state standardized tests to help gauge a teacher's success, taking into account such factors as race and income.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 22, 2013 | Sandy Banks
You could say that Carpenter Elementary in Studio City owes its survival to students from other neighborhoods. A generation ago, their presence kept the campus from being shut down, after local families fled to private schools to avoid Los Angeles Unified's mandatory busing program. By the time busing ended in 1981, fewer than 50 of Carpenter's 450 students were children from the neighborhood. Former Principal Joan Marks spent years going door-to-door, luring locals back with the promise of a school they could be proud of. Today Carpenter Community Charter has almost 1,000 students.
OPINION
March 12, 2013
Re "Tax vote reflects differing realities," March 9 The Times should be wary about printing such an enlightening article, which notes that though voters in less well-off L.A. neighborhoods overwhelmingly supported Proposition A (the failed half-cent sales tax increase on the city ballot last week), those in wealthier areas decisively rejected it. To document the wealthy's disdain for taxes that might help the poor risks banal accusations about fomenting "class warfare. " Readers might draw unjust conclusions about those most vociferously opposed to tax increases for the public good.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
February 4, 2013 | By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times
When Lashon Academy opens its doors this fall, its students will be taught to read and write in both English and Hebrew - a first for a public school in Los Angeles. But the approval of the charter school last month has raised concerns that it and others, particularly dual-language charters, blur the line between private and public campuses by accepting public money to cater only to a certain demographic. Lashon Academy, planned for Van Nuys, is modeled after the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn, N.Y., which opened in 2009.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 20, 2013 | By Rick Rojas, Los Angeles Times
The last issue of L.A. Youth has gone to press. The newspaper produced by teenagers for teenagers survived for 25 years in city schools but now has reached the end of its run. "It's over," said Donna Myrow, L.A. Youth's executive director, who started the newspaper with students working at her kitchen table. Over the years, it grew to have an office of its own, where students would come to produce a newspaper that was distributed to the classrooms of more than 1,200 teachers across Los Angeles County.
OPINION
January 6, 2013 | By Jervey Tervalon
I grew up in South Los Angeles at a time and in a neighborhood where, even for a child, having a gun pointed at you happened. For me, the first time was when I was 12 years old. I'd gone around the corner to visit a friend and a pretty new girl who had recently moved in next door to him. We were roughhousing, and somehow the girl fell and hit her head. She stood and accused me of deliberating hurting her; then she left. Before I could decide what to do, she had returned with a gun, which she pointed at me. "You hurt me," she said, tears running down her cheeks.