State board poised to take new direction in school accountability After months of drafting, revising and debating how best to measure and improve schools, the State Board of Education this week will adopt key elements of a new and distinct school accountability system. The series of votes on Thursday will meet the Legislature’s Oct. 1...

Finally, a disturbing trend in education shows signs of reversal Despite increasing income inequality and the recession, the school readiness gap has narrorwed, a Stanford professor of poverty and inequality in education has found. From 1998 to 2010, the gap had narrowed — with both poor and wealthy children better prepared for kindergarten and poor students improving their readiness at a faster rate. “It’s not a...

Why was it the ACLU, not charter school overseers, who called out ‘illegal’ behaviors?  Dozens of charter schools have made changes to their websites, enrollment forms or recruiting materials in the month since the ACLU of Southern California alleged that one out of every five charters in California had a discriminatory admissions policy. The report initially identified...

By Barbara Jones Los Angeles Unified’s popular magnet centers and schools outscored independent charters by double-digit margins on California’s new state assessments, and also beat statewide averages on the rigorous math and English tests, according to data released today. In the analysis of the Smarter Balanced Assessments, 61 percent of magnet students met or exceeded...

California bill to extend school choice law faces allegations of inequity The “district of choice” law currently allows about 10,000 students across the state to enroll in 47 participating school districts without seeking the permission of their home districts, which are often loath to let them — and the funding attached to them — go....

El Camino charter has one month to address alleged shortcomings A casual observer could be excused for thinking there must be two El Camino high schools in Los Angeles. One, a well-managed, long-running success story that delivers solid and sometimes spectacular academic results. The other, in need of appropriate oversight, with a free-spending principal and...

Los Angeles charter schools are outperforming traditional schools in math and English A math teacher at LA Unified’s Luther Burbank Middle School takes the latest CAASPP (California Assessment of Student Progress and Performance) scores and finds charter schools outperformed traditional schools in both math and English. He also lists three schools that serve diverse and poor...

Why this small Pacoima school saw big gains in state testing The percentage of third- through fifth-graders who met or exceeded the Smarter Balanced assessments in English language arts at Vena Avenue Elementary & Gifted Magnet increased from 44 percent in 2014-15 to 66 percent in 2015-16. Meanwhile, 52 percent of third- to fifth- graders met or exceeded...

More L.A. Unified students reach goals on statewide exams, district says More students in the Los Angeles Unified School District met statewide goals on standardized tests in 2016 than they did last year, district officials said at a meeting Tuesday. Scores on the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress increased in both English and math, they reported....

The LA Unified school board is scheduled to hold an open session meeting today starting at 2 p.m. Key items on the agenda include hiring more teachers, adjusting the school calendar, training workers to fix air conditioners and offering health benefits for teachers assistants and playground aides. Click here to watch the livestream of the meeting.