The word “MiSiS” is not generally associated with happy endings at LA Unified, and neither is the district’s increasingly competitive relationship with its 221 independent charter schools, but that was the case earlier this month when the district and its charters announced they had reached an agreement on linking their student data systems to fulfill...

UPDATED * It’s official. Monica Garcia announced Tuesday to her supporters that she will be running to retain her seat on LA Unified’s school board. Meanwhile, fellow board member Monica Ratliff surprised many education and City Hall watchers last week when she quietly took out papers with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission to allow her to run for the...

Supervisors appoint ‘strong advocate’ for county Office of Education post Debra Duardo, who dropped out of high school at 15 and was a teenage mother to a disabled boy, was selected on a unanimous vote last Tuesday during a closed-door session. Duardo has held positions as LA Unified’s director of Pupil Services and of Dropout Prevention...

A new report that analyzed how effective schools and cities are at closing the “achievement gap” between students from low-income families and their more advantaged peers found that nine of the top 10 schools in Los Angeles were independent charter schools. The first-of-its-kind Education Equality Index from Education Cities studied data from schools in the 100...

Members of the LA Unified School Board and the Los Angeles City Council joined last week with after-school program supporters, families and students to call for an increase in state funds. About 75 people gathered Friday outside L.A. City Hall in support of a resolution authored by City Council member David Ryu, chair of the...

Neighborhood councils in Los Angeles have served as easy and reliable sources of funds for public schools. The councils have $37,000 a year to dole out to the community, and many have set aside a portion of their budgets specifically for schools. But recently some of the councils have learned of a restriction that would tie their hands in...

By Iris Maria Chávez Ignorance is bliss, as the saying goes, and no state has taken that message more to heart than California. Alone among the 50 states, California stopped reporting accountability ratings for public schools in 2013 and was the first state in the nation to hit pause on accountability. Now, with responsibility for...

Growth of charter schools in California leads to conflict with school districts The heads of UTLA and CCSA square off in a radio debate as charter advocates are seeking to double the number of students attending charter schools in California by 2022. KQED Oakland school district sued by charter group over access to facilities, San...

When Andrea Schwartz first visited LA’s Clinton Middle School, the sight reminded her of “an insane asylum.” Paper airplanes and pencils dangled from the ceiling, and the hallways were stark white save for a sign demanding kids don’t run. The school, in Historic South-Central not far from USC, had been open for only five years, but it suffered...