Parents of color want California’s next governor to place a higher priority on improving public schools, a new poll finds. But as the two gubernatorial candidates held their first and perhaps only debate Monday, education barely came up. Republican businessman John Cox three times mentioned that the state’s schools are failing children, but there was...

The present erosion of American democratic institutions has a range of ugly consequences — anxiety, distrust, polarization, etc. But most concretely, our current political catastrophe has produced heavy gridlock. Creative, productive policymaking is at an all-time low — including in education. The 2015 passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act ended the No Child Left Behind era...

At the Juanita Street campus of San Diego’s Thrive Public Schools, the day begins with a high-five and a warm greeting at the visitors’ gate. The charter elementary school currently occupies a handful of compact, semi-permanent buildings and a blacktop in a hilly stretch of the City Heights neighborhood. Its electronic gate is still pretty...

Something was wrong. This year, the nonprofit YouthTruth started noticing an upsetting trend. The organization, which works to improve school climate and culture by distributing anonymous student surveys in districts, was noticing an increase in bullying rates. Sonya Heisters, YouthTruth’s director of partnerships and outreach, observed it first in Quincy, Washington. The rural district, perched...

*Updated Oct. 2 A new website, ApplyLA, debuts today that allows parents for the first time to apply to multiple independent charter schools in Los Angeles with a single application. Parents will be able to manage application deadlines, see the status of their applications, and accept offers in a single system. The application is mobile-friendly and available...

*Updated Sept. 27: After today’s first mediation session, LA Unified announced that the next session is set for Oct. 3. LA Unified sweetened its salary offer to the teachers union just before Thursday’s first mediation session, but it did not back down on teacher quality demands — including a call for a new category in...

*Updated Sept. 27 With critical elections in November for leaders in California who will affect children’s education, Latino parents need to know that their voice matters and that they can make a difference — even if they can’t vote. That was the message from school and community organizers at a weekend workshop for dozens of...

Students of color consistently receive less challenging instruction and schoolwork than do their white and more affluent classmates, a new study has found, often leaving them unprepared for college even if they have received top grades. The report used extensive surveying of students, who wore vibrating watches that prompted them to take surveys during class....

As LA Unified and its teachers union enter into mediation this week and the union prepares for a strike, their differences over how teachers are evaluated could be harder to resolve than how much pay raises will be. The district wants to add a new category of teacher ratings, called highly effective, as part of...