Los Angeles Unified has a multimillion-dollar problem: kids aren’t coming to school. And it’s particularly bad among their youngest students. New district data show that 1 in 4 kindergartners misses 15 or more days of school each year. “I couldn’t believe that when I heard that,” Diane Pappas, the superintendent’s senior adviser, told board members...

Following strikes this spring in which teachers in six states demanded higher salaries, a new poll finds a sharp uptick in Americans’ support for increasing educators’ pay. The national poll, last week by the journal Education Next, which has been surveying Americans on high-profile education issues for more than a decade, also found growing support for...

If you want to book a stay in Bainbridge Scott’s Airbnb in Los Angeles’s Montecito Heights neighborhood, you’d better plan well in advance. Listed as a “Rustic Studio with Private Garden Patio,” the hillside property boasts a terrace with views of the city, a classic clawfoot tub, and an extensive garden from which guests can...

*Updated Aug. 27 As night drew near last Tuesday, after a drawn-out and divisive four-hour debate on how to replace a disgraced board member, a bombshell was dropped at school board members’ feet. District finances are of such great concern that the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s chief financial officer showed up unannounced to...

*Updated Aug. 23 Families whose children attend schools in LA Unified’s Board District 5, in southeast and northeast Los Angeles, will get to elect a new representative in a special election on March 5. That’s what the school board on Tuesday decided to do with the seat that has been vacant since Ref Rodríguez stepped...

Every time Ana Ponce drives down the highway between Los Angeles and San Diego, she’s haunted by a childhood memory: her night in lockup — the sterile white room, the sounds of crying, and the fear she might be lost. Born in Mexico, Ponce moved to the U.S. when she was 4, and, even as...

LA Unified has one of the most generous health care benefits packages in the state. But that means a big chunk has to come out of the money the district gets to educate each child — $2,300, to be exact. That’s 14 percent of the $16,000 the district gets annually per student. Five years ago,...

*Updated Aug. 15 LA Unified kicked off the school year this week by more than doubling the number of new magnet schools and programs. But the mostly high-achieving school choice options have a new opponent: the teachers union. LA Unified is locked in a contract dispute with United Teachers Los Angeles, which is calling for...

LA Unified kicks off a new school year Tuesday, with a new superintendent looking to lead in a new way. Here are some reasons why Superintendent Austin Beutner says change is needed in the district: Of every 100 students who enter LA Unified high schools, 12 will drop out. Of every 100 students, 77 will...

There’s been heightened awareness and activism in recent years surrounding the discipline gap, or the occurrence that minorities — black males in particular — are disproportionately suspended or expelled relative to other racial and gender subgroups. But what’s received less attention are some of the other surprising trends embedded deep in data out of California....