An advisory committee studying options for LA Unified’s academic calendar are considering six different plans, and one them is a radically different approach that would shorten the summer break to five weeks and increase the winter break to seven weeks. In addition, the plan would potentially add a 20-day “winter intersession” for some students to...

LA Unified listed the names of the first 117 schools to get Transitional Kindergarten (or TK) classes in order to replace the closed School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP) classrooms. The rest of the 173 schools with the SRLDP pre-school programs will make the transition in the 2016-2017 school year. In the plan, none of...

This 12-minute video was posted on the LAUSD website today and will be shown to all 6th to 12th graders to warn them of the dangers of “sexting.” It is part of a campaign that will include lesson plans, posters, bilingual tip sheets and other resources for 900 elementary, middle and high schools. The video...

Hundreds of LA Unified employees and parents filed into the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center‘s downtown auditorium yesterday for a “Back to School at LAUSD” forum, hosted by Superintendent Ramon Cortines and other key district leaders. The event wasn’t called to unveil a specific agenda, but more for an open panel discussion on issues facing the...

By Eduardo Porter The wounds of segregation were still raw in the 1970s. With only rare exceptions, African-American children had nowhere near the same educational opportunities as whites. The civil rights movement, school desegregation and the War on Poverty helped bring a measure of equity to the playing field. Today, despite some setbacks along the...

Plan to boost charters splits L.A. Unified board Dividing lines quickly emerged over an ambitious plan to double the number of charter campuses across the city. Los Angeles Times Achievement gap points to ineffectiveness of decades of reforms Only 28 percent of African-Americans and 32 percent of Latinos who took the test in California met...

In a memo to all district employees yesterday, LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines re-emphasized support for transgender youth and employees. With new attention drawn to transgender issues spurred by the public transitioning of Bruce to Caitlynn Jenner and the Emmy-winning TV show, “Transparent,” Cortines not only offered a definition of common terms dealing with transgendered issues, but...

It may seem arbitrary, but there are usually half a dozen days off in the LAUSD school calendar that are called “Unassigned Days.” They are not for an official state or federal holiday, but somehow they usually coincide with a religious holiday. So, the first Unassigned Day of the year fell on Sept. 14 when teachers...

Steve Zimmer, president of the LA Unified school board, said today that plans by Eli Broad and other philanthropists to expand the number of charter schools in the district represents “a strategy to bring down LAUSD that leaves 250,000 kids vulnerable to damage.” A draft report of the plan appears show how the organizations involved...