The staff members who keep Los Angeles schools running — and prepared them to reopen during the pandemic — say they are on the verge of walking off the job. They held a rally Tuesday in front of the district’s headquarters as a step toward authorizing a strike. As Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the school...

When the nation’s most important test dropped in late October, the news was abysmal: Scores were among the worst in its history. But amid the carnage, one feel-good story emerged. Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school district, appeared to have accomplished a reading miracle, with eighth-grade scores jumping an incredible nine points. Peggy Carr, the...

In a black suit and red bowtie, his smile full of braces, Jason Finuliar stands by a fountain on the Santa Clara University campus as his mother snaps a photo. It was December 2018, and the promising young speech competitor had just placed fourth in a California tournament, qualifying him for nationals. “It was literally...

White families may have embraced pods and microschools as a short-term fix to cope with the pandemic. But for many Black parents, they offer something more permanent: an alternative to traditional schools where their children have historically faltered. “Our motivation for building outside of the system is because we saw our system crumbling in the...

The conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court seemed skeptical of whether universities should be able to continue the practice of considering race in admissions, and in arguments Monday, several justices openly questioned whether racial diversity offered any educational benefit. If the tenor of the sometimes pointed exchanges are any indication, the outcome may hinge on how long...

A majority of parents are more likely to vote in the upcoming midterm elections than they were four years ago, a new poll shows. But the economy, far more than education, is the issue driving them to the polls. While 82% of parents said they are very or extremely likely to vote in the election,...

Parading down a busy street in San Pedro, a Los Angeles neighborhood, students waved signs over their heads and urged passing cars to support their cause. “Honk for 28!” they yelled. “Say yes on 28.” The shouting referred to California’s Proposition 28, a ballot initiative that aims to pump at least $800 million into K-12...

It’s not unusual for federal education data to be a school year or two behind. But it doesn’t often come with a red warning label urging “abundant caution.” That’s how the U.S. Department of Education released chronic absenteeism data last month for the 2020-21 school year. But more recent data, available from just four states, suggests the...

Charter advocates were partially successful three months ago in getting the U.S. Department of Education to ease what they saw as onerous new rules for a program that provides start-up funds to new schools. But that compromise hasn’t stopped advocates in two states and members of Congress from trying to remove the remaining changes to the $440...

With state data projecting at least 10% drops in student enrollment over the next decade in some California counties, superintendents are worried. “Some of them are scratching their heads, saying ‘This is something we didn’t expect, and it is hard to know if this is our new enrollment trend,’” said Suzanne Speck, executive vice president of Sacramento-based...