As educators, we spend a lot of time talking about the things we think are important. Attendance. Graduation rates. Test scores. Yes, those things matter. But before any of them improve, students have to believe that school is a place where they belong.  This year, a student told me: “I gave up on myself because...

Math improvement rarely stalls because districts aren’t taking action. More often, it stalls because well-intentioned supports accumulate faster than schools can turn them into a coherent, actionable instructional plan. The instinct to seek additional support is understandable. Students need help immediately. Teachers deserve time and training. Families want progress they can see. So districts invest...

Recently, researchers at Dartmouth, Harvard and Stanford released the annual Education Scorecard, which points to a long-entrenched learning recession in American K-12 education.The latest reading achievement data tells a troubling story: Reading scores remain below pre-pandemic levels in many of the nation’s most under-resourced school districts. Equally concerning, researchers found that declines in reading achievement...

For a few years now, the United States has been marinating in a particular version of the American story. Specifically, we’ve been awash in warnings about the country’s alleged vulnerability in the face of cultural change. In this conservative telling, America grows stronger when it is monocultural, wealthier when it goes it alone, and better...

Public education, in red and blue states alike, is being pulled apart by student disengagement, mental health needs, culture war battles, voucher expansion, budget uncertainty and the disruptive force of artificial intelligence. New data prompt renewed handwringing over standardized test scores and their decade-long decline. Meanwhile, Republicans who seek more choice in public education and...

Most California parents assume that when they send their children to school on a hot day, someone is responsible for keeping them safe. They assume there are rules and that the adults in charge will notice if a child is struggling in the heat. That assumption is not always true. Until very recently, it was...

One of the many surprises of being a new parent is just how many diapers a tiny baby can go through in a day. In the haze of those first weeks and months adjusting to having an infant, parents shouldn’t have to worry about whether they can afford enough diapers — or what financial sacrifices...

The first time a 5-year-old told me swimming wasn’t for him, I asked him what he meant. He shrugged. No one in his family had ever learned. It just wasn’t for people like them. And he said it in the same matter-of-fact manner as if telling me the sky was blue. The fourth time a...

At LA’s BEST, we believe in this city. We believe in its people, its resilience and its capacity to do right by every Angeleno, including its youngest ones. And we believe that when the City of Los Angeles and its community partners work together, extraordinary things happen. Then-Mayor Tom Bradley, in a move both practical...

In 10 years, you see a lot. You see students enter kindergarten and grow into young adults ready to step into the world. You see educators develop their craft, take on new challenges and at times struggle under growing demands. You see communities change — economically, culturally, emotionally. And if you are paying attention, you...