As students return to learning this fall, they are going back in a variety of ways — in person, online or in some combination. This is creating issues for collecting and using education data consistently. While this is a challenge, it also presents an immense, and overdue, opportunity to move away from data like standardized...

School districts across the country are making the tough decision between in-person versus remote learning. Regardless of the path they choose, students are returning to a public school system more underfunded than at any time in recent memory. Direct federal support to state and local budgets is needed now more than ever as local school...

The more than 7,000 youth in foster care in the Los Angeles Unified School District experience significant obstacles in receiving an uninterrupted, quality education. A student in foster care is likely to encounter multiple, overlapping agencies, programs, and service providers when moving schools, especially if crossing district or county lines. And their academic and health...

This year, parents’ lens on education has radically changed. Many school buildings are empty while their students sit at the kitchen table, learning on video screens. Some children have returned to school, bringing home anecdotes about masks and socially distant lunch lines. More than ever, parents can see clearly what their children need academically and...

Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic closed Los Angeles County schools, Elena, a Promotora (community educator) who has been with Planned Parenthood Los Angeles (PPLA) for more than 15 years, reached out to a mother who had taken parent education classes at a LAUSD high school. Elena called to find out if the mother had followed...

The clamor to equip teachers to respond flexibly to another uncertain school year has brought to the forefront a problem that has impeded schools for years, albeit in a less obvious way: Teachers need an updated skill set for the modern world. The basic structure of the classroom is shifting from the monolithic, standardized model...

American schools’ responses to COVID-19’s sudden interruption to public education varied considerably across the nation as students went from daily classroom learning to stay-at-home orders nearly overnight. Now, a new survey reveals the limits of that patchwork response to the emergency — and indicates key lessons for schools’ reopening this fall. Over the past several months, Californians...

Education leaders across the country are experiencing a summer like no other as they plan for what the school experience will be for millions of students and families in the upcoming academic year. In considering the wide range of reopening scenarios — such as whether all students can safely return to school, if a hybrid...

As President Donald Trump continues to demand that schools reopen and families across the country anxiously await decisions, districts are asking a critical question: Will teachers come back once the doors reopen? Early indications suggest that while many will, others fearful of COVID-19 won’t. Those absences will exacerbate a supply gap of some 110,000 teachers...

When the coronavirus shut down school in the spring, my kids’ teachers spun out many impressive lessons. Their emails included links to travel videos on YouTube, math tutorials on Khan Academy, even parent-teacher video conferences. There was, however, one conspicuous absence from my kids’ e-learning: a feedback or support platform for their writing assignments. This...