Following a great story, by the one and only Howard Blume at the LA Times, LAUSD officials have announced plans to get tougher on Crescendo Charter Schools. Teachers and administrators from this multiple campus charter operator were found cheating on state tests last year, Blume writes.

Incoming LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy issued a memo to the school board Monday recommending that the Crescendo schools be given only a one-year renewal this week, as opposed to the five year renewal previously recommended by the district.

Take a look at the internal memo here.

A report, set to be released Tuesday by the University of Colorado, says the Los Angeles Time's much publicized teacher ranking system "is deeply flawed."
The newspaper's teacher ranking system rated some 6,000 Los Angeles Unified elementary school teachers from "most effective" to "least effective" based on student test data. The data was analyzed using the infamous "value-added method, " which compares student performance from one year to the next to evaluate a teacher's abilities.
The analysis was sharply criticized by teacher's union leaders, who called it a "witch hunt" on teachers, and was celebrated by others, including U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. LAUSD officials have also moved forward with a plan to introduce this method of test score analysis in their teacher evaluations.

This new report, produced by Derek C. Briggs, chair of the Research and Evaluation Methodology Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Colorado-Boulder doctoral student Ben Domingue, the LA Times " failed to consider
several critical factors that impact student achievement, such as long-term achievement patterns and influence from their peers."

The LAT also ran an article Monday, giving its analysis of the Colorado University study. In that piece Jason Felch says the report "confirms the broad conclusions of a Times' analysis of teacher effectiveness in the Los Angeles Unified School District while raising concerns about the precision of the ratings."

Bringing Los Angeles Unified schools into a new era of success is the primary goal of incoming Superintendent John Deasy, who spoke yesterday at Loyola Marymount University.
Melissa Pamer, of the Daily Breeze, gives us a great rundown of what the New Enlgand native had to say.
Since his arrival to the district Deasy has not shied away from controversial topics, like incentive pay for teachers and the use of test scores to measure employee performance.
Do you think Deasy, the fifth Superintendent for LAUSD in a decade, will accomplish his lofty goals, or will he abandon the district after a few years, with few accomplished, like so many have done before him?

A Chatsworth fifth grader will be allowed to strut his stuff to a Christian pop song this week at his school's talent show after his family sued Los Angeles Unified, district officials announced today.
The Superior Street Elementary student had been asked to choose a different song by school officials and PTA volunteers, who said the religious content of the tune was a bit much for a public school show.
The chorus of the song, "We Shine" included lyrics: "We are the redeemed/We are the ones who are free/And we belong to Jesus. We are now alive/And in this world we will shine/Cause we belong to Jesus/"
The student's family was determined to let their son perform an interpretive dance routine to the song though, so they asked the Alliance Defense Fund to pursue legal action.
The fifth grader, whose been practicing for weeks, will get to perform his number however the Alliance Defense Fund plans to continue legal action against the district, to get them to draft a policy that specifically addresses student's religious rights.

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