As California rethinks school accountability under the Every Student Succeeds Act, policymakers often overlook information that goes to the heart of what might be the most fundamental question for any parent: Does my child feel safe? Data about the real inner workings of schools, from teacher morale to academic culture to student safety, are rarely...

We just published an interactive map that shows the results of school climate surveys taken by teachers and students at LA schools. The map makes it easy for parents for the first time to compare the climate in their child’s school to other schools in the same neighborhood and across LA. There’s data on 786...

She had long black hair down to her waist in 1968 when she started at Valley View Elementary School. Today, her hair is shorter, a bit grayer, but she’s still there and still teaching. On Wednesday, Vicki Nishimura was honored for her 50 years of service to the school in Hollywood, and a plaque depicts...

* UPDATED A $50 million-a-year drain on the general budget by LA Unified’s food services, which was identified as a significant contributor to the district’s budget deficits, is on its way to being eradicated by the new director who has been on the job less than a year. Joseph Vaughn, who was hired last August from...

Only 43 percent of California’s 2015 high school graduates were eligible for the state’s public universities, one of the factors that contributed to the “F” that the state’s higher education received in a newly released report. And many of those who do make it to college aren’t finishing, the report found. Only 47 percent of...

The legal team for the father who has been held since Feb. 28 by immigration officials after his arrest outside a Los Angeles charter school is trying a new strategy, relying on a new law to wipe out old convictions. The father, Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, was born in Mexico and has lived in the United States...

Of the 1,600 LA Unified administrators who were notified in March that they may lose their jobs, only 115 have been told their contracts will not be renewed, but all of them are being offered other positions in the district. That could mean only a slight decrease in administration staffing levels next year despite a continuing...

A new data analysis of California test scores has revealed that three out of four black boys don’t meet state reading standards. The data analysis and article published Wednesday by the nonprofit news organization CALmatters provides a deep dive look at how gender interacts with race on the state tests. It found that: Girls have...

  As many as 9 out of 10 black parents and 57 percent of Latino parents nationwide believe that schools in their communities are underfunded compared to those in white communities. They also believe that racism is the second biggest obstacle for their children to receive a high-quality education, according to the second annual New Education...

By Kevin Mahnken What Serena Williams is to the Grand Slam, what the John Wooden UCLA basketball teams were to the NCAA tournament, and what Magic Johnson to the NBA finals — that is what Granada Hills Charter High School is to the rarified world of the United States Academic Decathlon: an iconic L.A. powerhouse...