LA School Report

Ask almost any educator what makes the biggest difference in a student’s success, and families will quickly enter the conversation. Learning does not begin and end at the classroom door. When families and educators understand one another and work toward the same goals, students are better supported. But believing in family engagement and having the...

Compton, Calif. — Fifteen years ago, the challenge of leading the Compton Unified School District would have scared off even the most confident education leader. Darin Brawley almost passed it over. The urban system, just off one of Los Angeles’ major freeways, was headed for state takeover and had a 58% graduation rate. When the...

With five simple words last year, Maine issued guidance that speaks volumes about how extreme weather is changing school. The law, Temperature Standards for School Buildings, clearly calls for each district in the state to set minimum and maximum temperature limits under which schools can operate.  What’s left unsaid in this bill is what any...

Lawmakers and the governor on Monday failed to extend a state grant program that helped schools upgrade their air conditioner systems, a decision that will allow utilities that funded the program to claw back funds for their ratepayers.  The California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing, and Efficiency program — CalSHAPE for short — set aside nearly...

California’s mandate requiring later start times for middle and high schools is already yielding results, with students sleeping more, reporting better mental health and scoring higher math and English scores, according to a new study.  The new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research examines the effects of Senate Bill 328, California’s statewide mandate for...

  Wendy Graham’s two kids first encountered Amira, a popular artificial intelligence tutoring platform, in 2025, during a summer reading program in New Mexico. She also used it at home with her daughter, now a fourth grader. But she found that the purple-haired avatar with the big, round glasses didn’t seem to understand where her...

Several years into California’s robust expansion of public transitional kindergarten, private preschool providers are facing challenges that could ultimately upend care for young children of all ages.  The program, which comes at no cost to families, added a new, pre-kindergarten grade level to public school districts throughout the state. The 2026-27 school year marks the...

This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for their daily newsletter. In a step toward giving math the attention early literacy has gotten, the Legislature on Monday approved a bill that would require schools to assess the math capabilities of all students in kindergarten through second grade each year, beginning in 2028-29.  The...

In late July, soon-to-be kindergarteners spent the morning getting their wiggles out at a summer learning program at Robert Bailey Elementary School in Providence. At first, they shyly raised their hands or whispered “that’s me” when their teacher sang an attendance song, but then they jumped up and spent the next hour stretching, dancing and...

As superintendent of Desert Sands Unified in California’s Coachella Valley, Kelly May-Vollmer has a hard time naming a system that’s not somehow connected to the district’s broadband network. Parents can check a school bus tracking app to make sure their child arrived on time. Cafeteria staff don’t use cash registers; kids’ meal accounts are linked...