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Friday, April 6, 2012

It's the law, court briefs allege, LAUSD needs to include student progress in teacher evals | 89.3 KPCC

It's the law, court briefs allege, LAUSD needs to include student progress in teacher evals | 89.3 KPCC:


It's the law, court briefs allege, LAUSD needs to include student progress in teacher evals


Two briefs were filed this week in a Los Angeles County Superior Court case that alleges the Los Angeles Unified School District is violating a state law requiring student progress be included in teacher evaluations.

“By failing to assess teachers and administrators based on the progress of pupils and including that assessment as part of the annual evaluation, the LAUSD annually fails in its statutory obligations to the hundreds of thousands of children, their parents and guardians, taxpayers and the community it is responsible to serve,” states a brief by lawyers representing seven unnamed parents.

The suit, filed in November by the Sacramento-based nonprofit Ed Voice on behalf of the parents, is set to go to trial in June.



Santa Monica College Board members say they're between a rock and a hard place with tuition plan


Some Santa Monica College Board members said after today's emergency meeting that they were between a rock and a hard place fiscally speaking, but while it took three hours to accomplish, the Board voted unanimously Friday to postpone its two-tiered course pricing plan until further review. The Santa Monica College trustees wanted to ensure that, unlike Tuesday’s raucous meeting, everyone had a turn at the microphone.

It seemed that many trustees were reluctant to do it, but all six in the room voted to pause the program that would offer 50 of the college’s most popular and crowded classes this summer at nearly five times the usual


Santa Monica College board puts a hold on 2-tier pricing plan


Santa Monica trustees voted today to put a hold on their controversial plan to offer a two-tiered pricing structure for classes. The plan would have called for bumping the costs of some popular courses nearly five-fold.

Pass/Fail reporter Vanessa Romo was at this morning's emergency meeting, where she provided updates and collected some colorful quotes from the debate. Check out her story, and follow her on Twitter.