LA School Report

After more than 20 years, 10,000 students, and countless lives changed, Liza Bercovici stepped down last year as executive director of Gabriella Charter Schools — a network she built from heartbreak.  In 1999, Bercovici lost her daughter Gabriella, 13, in a tragic bike accident while the family was on vacation in Grand Teton National Park....

Five years after COVID-19 shut down all the schools in Los Angeles, enrollment declines in the nation’s second largest district are worsening again. Since the pandemic, the Los Angeles Unified School District has lost more than 70,000 students. Enrollment has fallen to 408,083, from a peak of 746,831 in 2002. Losses steepened this year, too,...

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Students tap on their keyboards as a professor lectures at the front of the room. It looks like any other college course, except that it’s taking place at a high school. This year, more than 150,000 California teens are earning college credit in dual enrollment courses....

These days, success in today’s job market doesn’t necessarily mean going to college.  With the nation’s second largest school district now offering nearly 450 Career and Technical Education programs across 160 schools, Los Angeles Unified students are embracing CTE.  More than 47,000 students have access to programs that range from internships and dual enrollment courses...

This story was originally published on LAist. The backstory: According to Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Department of Homeland Security agents entered Russell Elementary and Lillian Street Elementary — both in South L.A.’s Florence-Firestone area — on April 7 and asked to speak with a total of five students. The principals denied those agents entry when they...

L.A. early education classrooms are returning to nature.   Motivated by research showing how the outdoors can aid in learning, the Los Angeles Unified School District is investing over $100 million dollars to transform heat-absorbing asphalt at every Los Angeles early education center into outdoor classrooms that reconnect students with nature.  The district has completed 23...

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The Trump administration overstepped its authority when it cut short pandemic relief grants for K-12 schools, a move that cost them hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a lawsuit filed today by California and a dozen other states. The suit, filed against...

Federal agents who were denied entrance to two Los Angeles elementary schools this week were seeking “access” to five young students attending those schools, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Thursday.   News of U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents showing up at Lillian Street Elementary School and Russell Elementary School in South Los Angeles’...

Few observers were probably surprised when Asian students outscored other students on test scores released by California state this fall. Statewide, and here in Los Angeles, Asian students who completed California’s 2024 assessments showed higher levels of proficiency in reading and math, compared to other racial groups.  Asian kids’ dominance of California’s state tests echoes...

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. $390,000 to Jaylon Tyson, a former basketball guard at UC Berkeley, from a group of private donors. $3,000 to Jordan Chiles, a UCLA gymnast and Olympic gold-medal winner, from Grammarly, an AI writing company. $390 to Mekhi Mays, a former Cal State Long...