Author Ian Hanigan

Ian Hanigan
Ian Hanigan serves as chief communications officer for the Orange County Department of Education, overseeing the Communications and Media Services unit. Along with producing stories and videos for the OCDE Newsroom, this team facilitates copywriting, video production, media relations, graphic design, web design and event support for OCDE. Prior to joining the department in 2015, Ian spent eight years as public information officer for the 30,000-student Irvine Unified School District. Before that, he was a local journalist, writing for the Long Beach Press-Telegram from 1999 to 2003 and the South Bay’s Daily Breeze newspaper from 2003 to 2006. His beats included education, city government, business and aerospace.
California Department of Education Logo

Student standardized test scores to be released to schools in September

Ian Hanigan
This year, Orange County students in grades three through eight and 11 took the new computer-based Smarter Balanced assessments, which were designed to measure student knowledge of California’s English language arts and mathematics standards. While officials from the California Department of Education originally indicated that schools could expect their assessment results during the summer break, we’re told September is now the target. Click through for details.

Three-day Safe Schools Conference features 48 workshops focusing on trends and best practices

Ian Hanigan
More than local 500 educators, school workers and law enforcement representatives will gather in Costa Mesa this week to address critical school safety and security issues during the sixth annual Safe Schools Conference. Presented by former state Secretary of Education Dave Long in collaboration with the Orange County Department of Education and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the three-day conference will be held Wednesday through Friday at the Hilton Orange County. [...]
Students at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Students participating in summer JPL internship program featured on EdSource

Ian Hanigan
In June, we told you about eight young men and women from high schools in the Santa Ana Unified School District who were selected to be summer interns at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. It was an opportunity made possible through OCDE’s emerging OC Pathways project, along with generous community partners like OpTerra Energy Services, which contributed stipends for each student. [...]
Basketball coach talking to team

Student spotlight: OCDE alum goes from college basketball coach to tenure-track professor

Ian Hanigan
Brendan Stern, a former student of OCDE’s Regional Deaf and Hard of Hearing program and a graduate of University High School in Irvine, recently resigned as head basketball coach at Washington, D.C.-based Gallaudet University -- but for a very good reason: He’s accepted a tenure-track position with Gallaudet’s Department of Government and Public Affairs. We reached out to Stern, 32, to talk about his work at Gallaudet, as well as his early days as an OC student.