Huntington Park leaders want to ban new charter schools for a year The small, densely populated city of Huntington Park is peppered with schools, about two dozen in 3 square miles. At least 10 are charters, and city leaders contend they’re bringing in unwanted traffic. Their solution is to try to ban new charter schools....

Californians, having curbed bilingual education, may now expand It In 1998, voters in California passed a law that severely restricted bilingual education in public schools, arguing that students were languishing in their native language and that requiring English-only instruction would speed up the time it took children to learn English. Now voters are being asked...

Science instruction is changing in California and 17 other states  In an unexpected response two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education rejected California’s application for a federal waiver from having to administer the California Standards Tests in science, a multiple choice test based on outdated science standards adopted nearly two decades ago. What makes...

A misguided attack on charter schools  The N.A.A.C.P., the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, has struggled in recent years to win over younger African-Americans, who often see the group as out of touch. The N.A.A.C.P.’s board will reinforce that impression if it ratifies an ill-advised resolution — scheduled for a vote this weekend — that...

*UPDATED Five state teachers have been selected as California Teachers of the Year, including LA Unified’s Isela Lieber, a former English learner who now teaches English and English as a Second Language at James Monroe High School, state Superintendent Tom Torlakson announced Wednesday. Lieber is an immigrant from Ecuador who came to the U.S. with only...

Magnolia charters face closure over past use of teachers from Turkey Three Los Angeles charter schools could be shut down, largely because of their practice of bringing in teachers from Turkey, The Times has learned. The schools are part of a group of 10 campuses operated by locally based Magnolia Public Schools, which has relied heavily on using temporary work...

The application period began Tuesday for LA Unified’s popular magnet schools and centers, which next fall will add nearly a dozen new options for families seeking a specialized education. Applications will be accepted online and by mail until 5 p.m. Nov. 10 for one of the 225 themed magnets, which will have an estimated 87,000 available seats...

Why an organization once seen as LA Unified’s biggest threat now plans to give money to LAUSD schools In late January, a mere three weeks into her tenure as Los Angeles Unified School District’s superintendent, Michelle King welcomed two surprising guests into her office: representatives of the nonprofit group that sprouted from the controversial “Great...

A Pasadena-based startup called codeSpark has raised $4.1 million in seed funding for web and mobile games that teach kids how to code even before they know how to read and write effectively. CodeSpark’s games were developed for kids 4 to 9 years old, and with a goal of not just teaching them STEM concepts, but engaging...

A new report shows that growing numbers of the 12 million Hispanic children in American public schools are turning to charter schools, where they tend to reach higher levels of achievement than at traditional district schools. “While district public schools still continue to serve the majority of Hispanic students, an increasing number of Hispanic families...