Los Angeles Unified School District

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Mar 20 2009

Accusations of sexual misconduct leave LAUSD under fire

Did they or did they not drop the ball? That is the question paramount in many people’s minds, as the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) grapples with the prospect that an assistant principal at Markham Middle School--who pleaded innocent during his arraignment in court yesterday to charges that he conducted lewd acts on a child–was shifted from one inner city school to another.

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Mar 13 2009

New web site gives parents data to evaluate local high schools

Only one of the 14 high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District which have high concentrations of African American students has as many or more fully credentialed teachers than the state average.

About 97 percent of the teachers at Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies are fully credentialed compared to 91 percent of teachers in high schools statewide.

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Feb 28 2009

Mayor appoints San Diego veteran to head education partnership

A 29-year veteran of urban education has been appointed superintendent of instruction for the Partnership for L.A. Schools, and will officially bring her team to take over six Los Angeles Unified School District campuses including Gompers and Markham middle schools beginning July 1.

Jan 31 2009

Teachers and parents vote on innovation division

This past week the teachers and parents of Crenshaw High voted in favor of the school entering the Innovation Division of Los Angeles Unified School District - LAUSD’s effort to place select schools on a pathway toward localized governance and control.

The chorus for change was overwhelming: More than 80 percent of all the teachers and faculty at Crenshaw High voted for change, and more than 94 percent of the voting parents did so as well.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.