LA School Report

Ask a room of parents whether phones belong in class, and the conversation is short. Ask about school laptops and tablets, and it gets a lot more interesting. Most of us land somewhere in the middle, and that’s where good policy should start. I’m a doctor, a former legislator and a mom, and I’ve learned...

Genny Richard constantly thinks about her family’s finances. “The stress level has been immense,” she said. “Because childcare is our largest expense, that’s been a big part of the reason.” Her 5-year-old son is in his third year at a full-time Montessori school in Irvine. It costs her family $2,020 a month — more than...

During a debate this month, the two candidates vying to become California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction exchanged barbs over every question that was posed: Their performance as school board members, parental rights, Title IX and college readiness.  But asked separately by The 74 about proposals to reform the state’s education funding formula, Democrat Richard Barrera...

A school building does more than house an education. It can expand opportunities for students — or limit what’s possible for them. For too many of California’s charter public schools, the cost of securing adequate facilities has become a hindrance rather than a foundation for student success. Consider Magnolia Public Schools in Southern California, a...

Before he heads out the door, Gov. Gavin Newsom must decide whether California will join 31 states in a new multibillion-dollar school choice program, funded by private donations, that President Donald Trump included last year in his One Big Beautiful Bill. Like most Democratic governors, Newsom hasn’t signaled whether he’ll opt in to the law...

California’s graduation rates reached a decade high last school year, while chronic absenteeism and suspensions continued to decline, according to the California School Dashboard released Thursday.  But progress remained uneven. Chronic absenteeism is still higher than before the pandemic, suspension rates have fallen only minimally and substantial disparities persist among student groups.  “At a time...

Less than a year after dwindling enrollment forced the closure of three elementary schools, California’s Berryessa Union School District added small, child-sized sinks and toilets at one campus to serve 150 infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The district knew there was unmet need for affordable childcare in the community north of San Jose, as there is throughout...

At Parkway Elementary School in Sacramento, students climb on logs beneath 58 new trees, explore flowering plants and use outdoor spaces as an extension of their regular classrooms.     But it didn’t always look that way: the majority of the schoolyard used to be covered in blacktop.  A collaboration with Green Schoolyards America in...

A mother with two daughters, a father with two sons, both board presidents of high-performing school districts — at first glance, Sonja Shaw and Richard Barrera seem to have a lot in common. But the two candidates for state superintendent of public instruction have very different ideas about what is best for California’s schools. Shaw,...

Last month I led a two-day training with eight California county offices of education. We kicked off the work with a deceptively simple question: Where are your districts in their curriculum implementation journey? The answer: Most of their 221 districts they oversee were a lot earlier in the journey than expected. Years after adopting instructional...