LA Unified has a Human Relations Commission, but it may be one of the district’s best-kept secrets. Their meetings aren’t listed on any of the school district’s calendars; more than 40 percent of the meetings last year didn’t have a quorum; and the department overseeing it once had 31 employees but is now down to two....

By Laurie Benn As a mother of seven children, I’ve spent a lot of time involved in my local public schools. I’ve always known that a good education was one of the most important things that I could give to my children. I was shuffled around in the foster care system from birth until I...

State board poised to take new direction in school accountability After months of drafting, revising and debating how best to measure and improve schools, the State Board of Education this week will adopt key elements of a new and distinct school accountability system. The series of votes on Thursday will meet the Legislature’s Oct. 1...

When Gregory Vallone took over as principal of Mulholland Middle School in Lake Balboa five years ago, it had experienced years of enrollment decline. The school once had 1,850 students but was down to 1,250. Then Vallone started a magnet. Vallone — a principal, teacher and administrator with LA Unified since 1974 — had been involved...

Look around at billboards, bus benches and online and you’re likely to spot a message from UTLA about students, teachers and parents telling their stories about their experience with the LA Unified school system. These positive stories about traditional district schools are part of an unprecedented media campaign launched this week by United Teachers Los Angeles, the second-largest teachers union...

Finally, a disturbing trend in education shows signs of reversal Despite increasing income inequality and the recession, the school readiness gap has narrorwed, a Stanford professor of poverty and inequality in education has found. From 1998 to 2010, the gap had narrowed — with both poor and wealthy children better prepared for kindergarten and poor students improving their readiness at a faster rate. “It’s not a...

LA Unified is wasting no time in getting students with poor or failing marks into its online credit recovery program at the start of the new school year. A district communications representative confirmed that credit recovery began right away for any student who earned a D or F in a course now being offered through the...

If El Camino Real Charter High School is stripped of its independent charter status, its teachers would lose their higher salaries and seniority and would have to start all over as new LA Unified employees, teachers have been told by union representatives. About 30 of the more than 150 teachers from the west San Fernando Valley high school attended...

  LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King signed off on new health benefits for teachers assistants and playground aides even though the agreement stated that it will help push district reserves into the red by half a billion dollars within two years. And the question in the document asking how the district would replenish those reserves was left blank....

Why was it the ACLU, not charter school overseers, who called out ‘illegal’ behaviors?  Dozens of charter schools have made changes to their websites, enrollment forms or recruiting materials in the month since the ACLU of Southern California alleged that one out of every five charters in California had a discriminatory admissions policy. The report initially identified...