By Michael Vaughn The Los Angeles teachers union just spent $82,000 on a report that concludes that the thousands of Los Angeles families who are choosing to send their children to charter schools are costing the LA school district a half-billion dollars annually. The report “doesn’t fault charters,” according to the LA Times, “saying that...

The key to reducing school suspensions? Treat kids with empathy, says study Researchers from Stanford University found that when teachers are reminded to approach students with an empathic mindset, rates of school suspensions go down. Students who get suspended from school are more likely to later drop out and face jail time. By Rebecca Klein, Huffington Post...

Although the brawl that took place on the Sylmar High School campus Monday is garnering national attention, it’s for the wrong reasons. “It was not race related, it was not about bullying,” said principal James Lee, who came to the school four years ago. Lee allowed students to take over the stage on Wednesday night at...

By Jill Tucker The taxpayer-supported Teach for America program, which supplies enthusiastic if inexperienced teachers to thousands of schools in lower-income areas across the country, has fallen out of favor in San Francisco. The city’s school board made clear this week that staffing some of the city’s neediest classrooms with recent college graduates who are...

Actor Danny Trejo joins students in discussion over 40-student lunchtime brawl at Sylmar High After a wild brawl involving 40 students at Sylmar High School on Monday, students and actor Danny Trejo met Wednesday night to express their frustration with the school board. “What happened on Monday we would all agree is an unacceptable occurrence,” Superintendent Michelle...

The LA Unified school board broke into a surprise closed session for several hours Tuesday afternoon in the middle of their public meeting in order to head off a potential “parent trigger” lawsuit over 20th Street Elementary School. All morning, the school board was in closed session to discuss employee actions, contract renewals and pending litigation....

Almost without comment Tuesday, the LA Unified school board voted unanimously to seek help from outside the district to replicate high-achieving schools. The resolution was introduced by Monica Garcia and Ref Rodriguez and asks the district staff to “seek outside support for the funding” to replicate successful school programs in areas of high need in the...

LADWP crews to test for water contamination in South LA LA Department of Water and Power crews Wednesday will test for water contamination after murky water was recently discovered at five elementary schools. CBS Los Angeles Report: Nation needs to replicate California’s English learner efforts, KPCC LA Unified turning to magnet schools to stem enrollment and revenue...

LA Unified board members asked Tuesday for an in-depth analysis of a union-funded report stating that the district loses more than half a billion dollars because of independent charter schools. A response from the California Charter Schools Association, delivered after an hours-long recess while the school board met in closed session to address litigation against the district, called...

  Sylmar High School has quieted down and an assembly is planned after a lunchtime brawl disrupted the campus on Monday. The 20-minute incident involving at least 40 students was captured on cellphone video and posted on YouTube. Principal James Lee told LA School Report, “This was an incident that just snowballed, and it had to do...