LA Unified increased its official graduation rate to a new high last school year, with 72.2 percent of students receiving a diploma, the district announced this week. The number is a two-point increase over the previous year, which was also a record high. Since 2009-10, when the state began using four-year cohort rates as the official...

Three years ago, the school now known as the LAUSD/USC Cinematic Arts and Engineering Magnet converted from a performing arts magnet into one with a cinematic focus, and it hired Matt Waynee to head up the new cinematic arts department. To add to his success at the school, Waynee has now been named National Magnet School Teacher of the...

Three charter management organizations (CMOs) were named as finalists for the 2016 Broad Prize for Public Charter Schools, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced today. The finalists are Success Academy Charter Schools in New York, IDEA Public Schools and YES Prep Public Schools. IDEA and YES Prep are in...

Updated Feb. 10, 2021 | This is part of an LA School Report series taking an in-depth look at the different categories of schools that exist within the massive LA Unified school district. Today we conclude a three-part mini-series on magnet schools. Check here for Part I and Part II.  Jai’Myah Henderson may have fallen right...

The LA Unified school board put its money where its mouth is at its May 10 meeting and approved a $3 million expansion of its growing magnet program. The move comes after months of public comments from district leaders pointing to the popular magnet program as a way to increase enrollment in the district. Two...

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, LA School Report spent some time recently talking with Brendan Wallace, a math teacher at Alliance Marc and Eva Stern Math and Science High School. On Thursday, Wallace was named the Teacher of the Year for Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, an organization that runs 27 charter schools in Los Angeles. (Check...

About 200 parents, students and teachers rallied Wednesday morning outside Castelar Street Elementary School in Chinatown as part of a “walk-in” calling for lower class sizes at LA Unified, increased staffing and more accountability for Prop. 39, the law that gives charter schools the right to use empty class space at district schools through a process called...

A recent report issued by the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) found that charter schools in the state are excelling at getting historically disadvantaged students into college over traditional schools. According to the report, “African-American and Latino charter students almost twice as likely (19 percent) to apply to [the University of California system] as their...

There is a wide gulf of disparity when it comes to the performance of races and subgroups in LA Unified’s A through G completion and graduation rates, but these groups have come a long way and are doing better than ever before. Recent district reports breaking down the graduation rate as it heads into the final...

The LA Unified school board faced a difficult decision in June. It had previously voted to raise the bar on its graduation requirements starting in 2016 in an effort to get more students into college, but it was clear not enough students were ready for the challenge and graduation rates would plummet if aggressive action...