By Jenny Hontz  When LA School Report reported this week that 181 LAUSD staffers are currently being paid to sit around and do nothing while they are investigated for alleged misconduct, costing the district $15 million a year, school board members expressed surprise. The numbers are staggering, but it should be no surprise to anyone that...

In a highly anticipated ruling that’s been years in the making, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a University of Texas affirmative action policy that takes race into consideration when selecting applicants — a ruling that could have a profound effect on America’s minority high school students planning to attend college. After the decision...

New state agency gets infusion of money to promote school success The new agency charged with helping to implement and enforce the state’s school accountability and improvement system has a fresh source of money and a plan to spend it, starting this fall. The California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, overseen by Carl Cohn, a former State Board of Education member...

Editor’s note: With Los Angeles poised to be able to expand preschool access once Gov. Jerry Brown signs the budget, here is a look at one city that has invested heavily in early education. It’s a typical Wednesday morning at the Lincoln Park campus of AppleTree Early Learning, a network of pre-K charter schools dotting Washington, D.C. Inside the...

By Howard Blume and Zahira Torres Two organizations set up to work within the traditional public school system are moving away from their original mission — and from the Los Angeles Unified School District — in the name of better helping students. The governing boards of the Los Angeles Fund for Public Education and the group LA’s Promise have voted to...

Parents and principals could weigh in on charter placements at LA campuses Families and schools in LA Unified could get more of a say in the way the district allocates space to charter schools, thanks to a committee the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted to create Tuesday. The school board directed the superintendent to form a...

The LA Unified school board on Tuesday unanimously approved a $7.6 billion balanced budget for 2016-17, with some of the most passionate objections devoted to the 14 percent increase for school police. The passing of the budget became much simpler after the state notified the board last week that it would have an extra year...

A year after LA Unified pledged to expedite employees “housed” in teacher jails, district numbers show that there are more now than there were at this time a year ago. According to numbers requested by LA School Report and released Wednesday, 181 LA Unified staff members are being paid to essentially do nothing while awaiting internal investigations about alleged misconduct,...

*UPDATED Preliminary data show that 74 percent of LA Unified high school seniors met new graduation requirements, the first class required to pass college preparatory classes, the district announced Tuesday. Superintendent Michelle King made the announcement during a morning ceremony with the school board celebrating Class of 2016 graduates. “This is the first class that stepped up...