CORE districts turn spotlight on struggling student groups To shine a brighter light on academic disparities, the six California districts known as the CORE districts have tracked test results for much smaller student subgroups than the state requires, giving a more complete picture of how some groups – African-American children and students with disabilities, in...

LAUSD assistant principal arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct with student William Webb, a popular assistant principal at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s flagship arts high school, was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of sexual misconduct with a student. Los Angeles Times Brownish tap water ‘not unsafe,’ DWP assures residents, City News Service San...

L.A. school district reaches $88-million settlement in sex misconduct cases  The Los Angeles school district will pay $88 million to settle sexual abuse cases at two elementary schools where complaints about the teachers’ behavior had surfaced long before their arrest, officials confirmed Monday. The settlement with 30 children and their families, finalized over the weekend,...

By Naomi Nix (Bridgeport, Connecticut)  —When veteran Bridgeport journalist Nancy Hendrick greeted the start of 1961 with a blistering column called “What’s Wrong With Bridgeport,” the inequalities that afflict the city today were already evident everywhere she looked. “Suddenly we are all aware of the sharp contrast between private opulence and public squalor that exists within...

LA school board president: Gender neutral bathrooms for all middle and high schools LAUSD officials came out in support of the Obama administration’s guidance for protecting transgender students from discrimination. City News Service A transgender 9-year-old tells her story, Los Angeles Times Schools offer lessons on accommodating transgender students, Los Angeles Daily News States dig...

The key to reducing school suspensions? Treat kids with empathy, says study Researchers from Stanford University found that when teachers are reminded to approach students with an empathic mindset, rates of school suspensions go down. Students who get suspended from school are more likely to later drop out and face jail time. By Rebecca Klein, Huffington Post...

By Jill Tucker The taxpayer-supported Teach for America program, which supplies enthusiastic if inexperienced teachers to thousands of schools in lower-income areas across the country, has fallen out of favor in San Francisco. The city’s school board made clear this week that staffing some of the city’s neediest classrooms with recent college graduates who are...

Actor Danny Trejo joins students in discussion over 40-student lunchtime brawl at Sylmar High After a wild brawl involving 40 students at Sylmar High School on Monday, students and actor Danny Trejo met Wednesday night to express their frustration with the school board. “What happened on Monday we would all agree is an unacceptable occurrence,” Superintendent Michelle...

LADWP crews to test for water contamination in South LA LA Department of Water and Power crews Wednesday will test for water contamination after murky water was recently discovered at five elementary schools. CBS Los Angeles Report: Nation needs to replicate California’s English learner efforts, KPCC LA Unified turning to magnet schools to stem enrollment and revenue...

The LA Unified school board is scheduled to hold an open session meeting today at 1 p.m. Items on the agenda include a teachers union-commissioned report on the financial impact that independent charter schools have on the district, and a resolution from board members Monica Garcia and Ref Rodriguez calling on the district to more aggressively court...