*UPDATED A massive undertaking to increase access to high-quality education for tens of thousands of low-income students in Los Angeles was revealed today in a long-awaited plan by Great Public Schools Now, a well-funded nonprofit organization formed last year. The goal is to expand access for 160,000 students GPSN has identified as attending failing schools in 10...

LA Unified began the new year facing a formidable challenge, as only 54 percent of its senior class was projected to be on track for passing all their A through G standards, a series of courses required for acceptance into California’s public universities. The new, higher graduation standards went into effect for the first time...

All seven of the LA Unified school board members, along with Superintendent Michelle King and Executive Officer Jefferson Crain, read the names of the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting massacre at the opening of the school board meeting Tuesday afternoon before each board member then read part of a resolution re-emphasizing their commitment to...

Before today’s afternoon school board meeting, the union representing teachers assistants, after-school workers and playground supervisors protested outside the LA Unified headquarters asking that the board reconsider health care benefits for 10,264 employees now shut out of those benefits. The union representatives plan to speak at the afternoon session of the school board. The district...

The LA Unified school board is scheduled to hold an open session meeting today. The agenda includes a vote on approval of revisions to a year-old teacher evaluation system and a public hearing on next year’s Local Control Accountability Plan. Click here to watch the livestream of the meeting.

By Mauro Bautista  Most of us who grew up in Los Angeles in the 20th century had limited choices as to which school we attended. Most attended the local public school as determined by a zone of residence. Some of us, like me, attended a magnet high school and a few others attended private high schools....

California moves to catch up on K-12 computer science curriculum After years of lagging behind Arkansas, West Virginia and several other states, California is expanding computer science in public schools across the state and training teachers to teach it. By Pat Maio, EdSource Less test-iness over LA teacher evaluations, LA Times LAUSD gets $1M to...

*UPDATED The first class to graduate from an innovative university-based charter school in Los Angeles is sending all 84 grads to four-year colleges, most with scholarships. Valerie Childress watched her quadruplets graduate Saturday evening on the campus of the University of Southern California with tears in her eyes. “I said I wasn’t going to cry, but I have been...

By Andy Smarick  The ten-dollar founding father without a father, Got a lot farther by working a lot harder, By being a lot smarter, By being a self-starter. —John Laurens on Alexander Hamilton, Hamilton Seven years ago at the White House, Lin-Manuel Miranda described the premise of his still unfinished musical. And an esteemed crowd laughed. Miranda...

The growing power and influence of the U.S. Hispanic population is lost on no one: politicians, pollsters and CEOs. But what has been lost are generations of school kids. Hispanics are the nation’s most undereducated minority group. While more Hispanic teens than ever are enrolling in college, there is fresh urgency to ensure that trend...