With record October heat striking the Los Angeles area, LA Unified today cancelled all outdoor daytime athletic activities in the San Fernando Valley, NBC reported. Varsity football games scheduled for after 7 p.m. will continue. Because of triple digit heat, Santa Ana winds and fire danger expected through the weekend, heat advisories and red flag warnings...

* UPDATED In a move supported by LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy, several civil rights organizations asked a judge yesterday to order the state to address the scheduling mess plaguing Jefferson High School, where computer glitches have caused many students to go for two months without the correct classes. Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the teachers...

In it’s first ever state-by-state rankings, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools ranked California’s charters No. 8 on its list of best in the nation. Using 11 measures, the study ranked 26 states that met the criteria for the study and judged their overall health based on how they are performing, innovating and growing....

Celebrities are often the trendsetters around the country and LA, as health and spiritual movements like yoga, Kabbalah and diet fads get widespread media attention due to their famous adherents. But there is one celebrity-led health trend that has state and LA officials alarmed, and that is the plunging number of children receiving vaccinations against...

To commemorate “Big Red Tuesday,” United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo-Pearl used a sidewalk press conference at Thomas Starr King Middle School this morning to outline yet again the union’s contract demands from LA Unified. UTLA encouraged teachers and supporters all around the district to wear red to campuses, and as he spoke, Caputo-Pearl was flanked by...

With the signing of AB 420, Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday made California the first state in the nation to limit suspensions and expulsions for the reason of “willful defiance,” a term critics call a catch-all phrase that can be hard to define but includes such categories as talking back, refusing assignments or violating the...

Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews took an in-depth look at Los Angeles County this month when he applied his Challenge Index rankings and came up with a list of the top 75 private and public schools. The results may surprise some, as Mathews noted that only six schools on the list are private, and...

LA Unified’s Beyond the Bell program received some national recognition last week when it was honored with the prestigious Hoyt S. Vandenberg Award from the Air Force Association. The program was the first educational institution to receive the award, which for 66 years has recognized achievements by individuals or institutions in the U.S. Air Force,...

A new report from Child Trends took a close look at Hispanic children in America and found a “complex picture.” The 35-page report examined all facets of the lives of Hispanic children, including education, and said some of its findings are “familiar while others are less well-known.” Overall, while Hispanic students have made significant gains over...

LA Unified has won a $13 million federal grant intended to expose low-income students to college. The grant will span over seven years and benefit 2,000 students currently in the sixth- and seventh-grades, according to City News Service. The schools involved in the grant are Berendo Middle School, the Helen Bernstein Complex, Le Conte Middle...