Tomorrow’s LA Unified School Board meeting is shaping up to be loud and crowded as the seven members take the final step in approving a new contract with the teachers union and consider several plans to fix impending drop in graduation rates. After years of working under an expired contract, UTLA members last week overwhelmingly...

An open letter from four members of the Community Coalition Youth Leaders to the LA Unified school board, which is considering a resolution tomorrow from Mónica García and Steve Zimmer to enhance support for improving the district’s college-ready graduation rate.  Dear Board Members: On behalf of the thousands of students in South Los Angeles, we...

By The Editorial Board It’s much easier for members of the L.A. Unified school board sitting on the dais to pass stringent and unrealistic new standards than it is for teachers on the ground to carry them out. Case in point: the district’s requirement that all students take the full schedule of college-prep courses —...

Students teaching students in new world of Common Core math Four years into teaching Common Core-based math in elementary schools, Downey Unified is betting that its collaborative approach will serve its students. KPCC Toxic turf? Movement grows against synthetic turf Artificial turf fields, cushioned with recycled crushed tires and increasingly in demand for US athletic...

* UPDATED UTLA  members overwhelmingly approved a tentative contract with LA Unified that will lead to 10.4 percent raise for teachers over two years. The school board is expected to rubber stamp the new deal at its next board meeting, on Tuesday. Eighty three percent of union members — 25,300 people — participated in the...

Millennials may be the first generation born and raised in the digital age, but the state of California has a long way to go in catching up to modern times in providing the state’s minority students with a proper education in computer science, according to a new report. “Path Not Found: Disparities in Computer Science...

By Jenna Chandler Moms who turned out last week to hear vaccine critic Andrew Wakefield speak in Dana Point said the debate over whether to inoculate their children has become so divisive it’s severing friendships. “The ‘V’ word, man, it’s a hot topic,” said Dotty “Sunshine” Hagmier, founder of local moms group Moms In Charge....

What schools must learn from LA’s iPad debacle When LA schools began handing out iPads in the fall of 2013, it looked like one of the country’s most ambitious rollouts of technology in the classroom. Wired LA rents are so high the school district is building apartments for teachers The LAUSD notes that annual median...

A state audit of Magnolia Public Schools, a charter network operating in LA Unified, has found that the group’s financial controls need improvement but that the district acted too hastily in its attempts to close three of the chain’s eight campuses. The report, issued today, brings to a close a long running episode involving Magnolia’s parent...

Continuing a stream of major academic wins for LA Unified schools, El Camino Real Charter High School this week won the 2015 national U.S. Academic Decathlon Online competition. The news follows last month’s victory by Granada Hills Charter High students in the 2015 U.S. Academic Decathlon championship. It’s the fifth year in a row that LA...