How LA Unified plans to help schools track English Learners to proficiency A new tool handled by LA Unified’s MiSiS computer system will help give principals monthly reports on the more than 140,000 English Learner students. Research shows that students who are not reclassified as English proficient by middle school are at a higher risk...

LAUSD students go back to school Aug. 16, but parents and teachers say that’s too soon On Aug. 16, most students in the Los Angeles Unified School District will return to the classroom. But according to a survey of LAUSD parents and employees, summer fun doesn’t last long enough. The district conducted a phone survey in September...

Dual language programs could get boost with initiative on November ballot With a growing number of parents embracing the value of their children learning a second language, nine more dual immersion programs are coming to L.A. Unified when schools open next week. Among the additions are one in Armenian and another in Arabic, giving the district 65 such...

Disease rates likely to fall as new vaccination law takes effect Mississippi hasn’t had a case of measles since 1992. West Virginia last saw measles – a highly contagious virus that kills an estimated 314 people worldwide every day – in 2009. Now, with California’s new vaccination law rolling out shot by shot, the state...

By Howard Blume Scott Folsom, a freelance Hollywood producer who never made a big splash in show business, found his true calling in another role, that of official and unofficial watchdog over the Los Angeles Unified School District. Folsom, 69, died Thursday after a two-year battle with cancer that almost never kept him from school board...

Not a bang but a whimper: Bilingual education ban’s likely exit Eighteen years ago, bilingual education was about as hot a political topic as there was in California – today, not so much, despite the best efforts of Donald Trump to make immigration a wedge issue. This November, the question comes back as voters have...

Proposed federal, state accountability systems could again clash The Legislature required and the California State Board of Education is designing a multidimensional school accountability system that will incorporate measures of school climate and students’ readiness for college and careers. But, according to a new analysis, proposed federal regulations would, in effect, prohibit states from using...

CORE districts want state waiver to continue their work The six California school districts that designed their own school accountability and improvement model are asking the State Board of Education for permission to continue to develop their hybrid system in 2017-18 and beyond. The board will discuss and possibly vote on the proposal at its...

How the relationship between LA Unified and charter schools is ‘like a middle school dance’ There are about 10 types of public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, many with their own admissions processes and schedules. To address that problem, the school district has discussed creating a “unified enrollment system,” a one-stop-shopping experience for choosing between...

LA Unified school board member Monica Garcia announced on her Twitter and Facebook accounts recently that eight district high schools will benefit from three Talent Search Federal Grants from the U. S. Department of Education in the amount of $908,160.00 annually for the next five years. The grants will be administered by the the University of...