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King/Drew Magnet, another South LA high school each get $20K to help them apply for expansion grants
LA Unified’s Local District South will receive two $20,000 planning grants to apply for replication grants for two South Los Angeles high schools from Great Public Schools Now, the district and the organization announced Monday. The nonprofit organization will award up to five high-performing district schools up to $3.75 million in replication grants this spring....
By Sarah Favot | November 21, 2016
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Los Angeles charter school doesn’t cut it, advocacy group says in call for non-renewal of 6 California charters
The California Charter Schools Association on Thursday called on the LA Unified school board not to renew the charter of Academy of Science and Engineering when it comes up for review this year and made the same call for non-renewal for five other charter schools in the state. The charter high school in Baldwin Hills...
By Sarah Favot | November 17, 2016
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Can these two women save thousands of LA students from failing schools? Behind the scenes with Michelle King and Myrna Castrejón
At a recent town hall held by Great Public Schools Now, Myrna Castrejón, the leader of the nonprofit seeking to expand excellent schools in Los Angeles, waded into the audience of parents, community members and LA Unified officials to ask what kind of schools they wanted for their kids. One parent whose son has a...
By Sarah Favot | November 15, 2016
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East LA students march in protest as LAUSD calls for calm
*UPDATED Students in East Los Angeles on Monday morning walked out of classes from at least five high schools to protest in the wake of Donald Trump‘s election as president. Walkouts at school campuses began last week following Trump’s victory on Tuesday. Students at Garfield, Mendez, Roosevelt, Wilson and Lincoln high school walked out of...
By Sarah Favot | November 14, 2016
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Education reform candidates score gains in California’s Democratic caucus
Groups that support charter schools and education reform spent millions in the 2016 election cycle, and it seems it paid off as several candidates they backed appear poised to be heading to Sacramento in December. Education reform independent expenditure committees, like EdVoice and the California Charter Schools Association, spent 10 times more in the general...
By Sarah Favot | November 11, 2016
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‘You have scared children’: LAUSD board president sends message to Trump at news conference and tells students schools are safe
*UPDATED Following two nights of protests as well as student walkouts in Los Angeles and around California in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer joined other leaders in calling for unity Thursday and told students their schools were safe. “We, like the LAPD, are...
By Sarah Favot | November 10, 2016
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Test scores are too low to qualify for grants at 3 schools where teachers voted to reject the funds
More than 70 percent of students at three schools where teachers voted last week to reject grant funds did not meet proficiency on state standardized tests last year in English and more than 80 percent did not meet the standards in math, a review of test data shows. The fourth school where the teachers voted...
By Sarah Favot | November 8, 2016
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New data rank all public charter and traditional schools in California
Data provided by the California Charter Schools Association. Note: Orange is a charter school; purple is a traditional school. The California Charter Schools Association on Tuesday released its first ranking of every public charter and traditional school in the state. Each school is ranked from 1 to 10 as a statewide rank and a “similar...
By Sarah Favot | November 1, 2016
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Report on special education in charter schools seeks to counter misconceptions
In an effort to counter the misconception that charter schools don’t accept special needs students, the California Charter Schools Association released a report Thursday highlighting how 10 charter schools in the state serve students with disabilities. The qualitative study included best practices based on interviews with charter school leaders and staff and focused on how...
By Sarah Favot | October 27, 2016
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Stories of hope power education town hall in East Los Angeles
Mary Najera didn’t even know what a charter school was when she applied to the first Green Dot Public School, but within two years it had transformed her son who was on the brink of falling into a life of gangs and drugs. Najera told her family’s story Tuesday evening at a town hall event...
By Sarah Favot | October 26, 2016