Debate emerges over state actions needed to ease teacher shortages As California school districts grapple with a widening shortage of teachers, a policy debate has emerged about just how actively the state should be involved in trying to remedy the problem. EdSource, by Louis Freedberg When social and emotional learning is key to college success,...

LAUSD plans a Common Core makeover for its elementary report cards The report card changes are being proposed as part of a plan to better help parents track how well students are mastering the expectations spelled out in new sets of academic standards. The new report cards significantly expand the section rating students’ academic performance....

As the presidential primaries enter their hothouse phase, one 2016 election lesson is clear: the United States’ demographic shifts are more politically important now than in other recent contests. Of course, this new diversity has been coming for some time — much of it driven by immigration patterns and low birth rates among native-born Americans....

LA Unified announced this month that the district may graduate 80 percent of its seniors this year, a record high, but a growing number of critics say that record is suspect because online credit recovery courses are largely responsible for the achievement. The news of the potentially record-breaking graduation rate came mere weeks after a projection in...

LA schools chief to hold town hall Tuesday in San Fernando Valley The town hall, part of a promised “listening tour,” will allow new LA Unified Superintendent Michelle King to share her vision for the nation’s second largest school district. Los Angeles Daily News, by Dana Bartholomew Are synthetic playing surfaces hazardous to athletes’ health? Los...

It was a devastating time for the young teachers who worked at John H. Liechty Middle School near downtown Los Angeles. It was 2009, and 72 percent of the school’s teachers were handed pink slips, casualties of America’s crumbling economy. Brendan Finch, working there through Teach For America, was among those let go, though he...

Melissa Campos says senior year is a breeze for many of her friends and former teammates attending neighborhood high schools in Los Angeles Unified. Many of them get out for “work study” after a few periods of electives, she said. They are done with math, science and foreign language classes, and there are no AP...

Editorial: Are LAUSD students really ready for college? The time is up in the LAUSD time table to get every student to earn a D or better in college prep classes. Are the students ready? Los Angeles Times UCLA or USC? Where are you better protected against an active shooter?,City Watch How high school would...

Even before the deputy attorney general got to finish a single statement, the 2nd District Court of Appeals justices hearing a landmark education case Thursday jumped in to ask questions. How do you tell if a teacher is “grossly ineffective”? Is there proof that discrimination has occurred? What is the impact on the state? For...