Forty-two percent of LA Unified’s 2016 graduates re-took a class they had previously failed or needed some other kind of credit recovery in order to graduate, district officials said Thursday. Superintendent Michelle King announced in August that the preliminary graduation rate was a record 75 percent, but the district had not calculated how many students...

Community leaders, parents and even educators across Los Angeles agree that navigating LA Unified can be confounding and frustrating, so on Thursday two groups — United Way of Greater Los Angeles and the Communities for Los Angeles Student Success (CLASS) Coalition — launched a Parent Engagement Toolkit to help parents understand academic terms, education policies,...

  About 400 parents, teachers and students joined union leaders at a Los Angeles elementary school on Thursday, one day before the presidential inauguration, to protest the incoming administration and to support public schools. The demonstration, called a “Shield Our Schools Action,” drew thousands throughout LA Unified, said President Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of United Teachers...

In preparation for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, LA Unified has declared Friday “Unity Day.” In addition, a district official said LA Unified will be prepared for any potential policy changes under the new Trump Administration and any resulting loss of federal funding. Pedro Salcido of LA Unified’s Office of Government Relations said the district is...

  About two dozen pilot programs throughout LA Unified are helping prepare the entire district for new, more comprehensive state science tests that fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders will start taking in 2019. The new California Science Test (CAST) will replace the California Standards Test (CST). It will be taken on computers rather than on paper and...

Honoring the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., hundreds of young volunteers from City Year in coordination with local partners on Monday commemorated Dr. King’s dream of the “Beloved Community” by beautifying Crenshaw High School in South Los Angeles. City Year, a national organization dedicated to helping students and schools succeed by...

As LA Unified struggles to right its financial ship, the high costs of educating children with special needs have come under a microscope. One strategy being used is identifying children in the infant and preschool years to help integrate them sooner into the general education population, which then cuts back on referrals to expensive special...

Charter schools were mostly approved on consent agendas at the LA Unified school board over the past two meetings. Some charters that were rejected by LA Unified ended up being approved on appeal by the county. In one case this month — as has happened in the past — a school recommended for denial by the...

The latest campaign finance reports in the LA Unified school board races are in and the records show that the most money by far has been raised in the District 4 race where board President Steve Zimmer is running for re-election. A total of $781,646 has been raised by the candidates in the three board...

He doesn’t have all the answers, but Richard Vladovic, fondly referred to as “Dr. V,” said he believes he has some of the answers. This month Vladovic celebrates 50 years in education, serving as a teacher, many times as principal, a superintendent and now as an LA Unified school board member since 2007. He says...