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East LA shines in new school climate map. Advocates credit intensive community investment but say there’s more to do.

A new interactive map on how safe Los Angeles schools are shows a wide swath of red in predominantly Latino, poor and immigrant neighborhoods, indicating students and teachers report not feeling safe. But one neighborhood with those same demographics stands out for its lack of red. Boyle Heights/East LA is an oasis of green and yellow, meaning that students...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | June 8, 2017
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Rally breaks out at LA high school to protest university student’s detention by ICE agents

*UPDATED Protesters gathered at an East Los Angeles high school Thursday afternoon after students took to Twitter with #FreeClaudia over the detainment of an undocumented university student who was arrested in front of her home in Boyle Heights. On Friday morning, a San Diego judge ordered the release of 22-year-old Claudia Rueda on her own recognizance, but her...
By Mike Szymanski | June 8, 2017
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Exclusive: How safe are LA’s schools? New interactive map compares what teachers and students are seeing

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...
By Max Eden | June 8, 2017
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Here’s how to use the interactive map on school climate in LA schools

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...
By Sarah Favot | June 8, 2017
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LAUSD All-Star Hero: Vicki Nishimura is honored for her work with 50 years of students at Valley elementary school

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...
By Mike Szymanski | June 7, 2017
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LAUSD winning its food fight: $50 million-a-year drain on general budget by food services is getting plugged

* 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...
By Mike Szymanski | June 6, 2017
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California’s public universities are failing to produce enough college graduates, study finds

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...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | June 5, 2017
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New strategy may help fight deportation of father who was picked up outside school by ICE agents

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...
By Mike Szymanski | June 5, 2017
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115 administrators are reassigned, but LAUSD may not see much decrease in staffing levels next year

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...
By Mike Szymanski | June 5, 2017
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‘Terrible data’ on black boys in California show the need to break down state test scores by gender, advocate says

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...
By Mike Szymanski | June 2, 2017