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Meet the gatekeepers of students’ private lives

If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. Megan Waskiewicz used to sit at the top of the bleachers, rest her back against the wall and hide her face behind the glow of a laptop monitor. While...
By Mark Keierleber | May 12, 2022
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An interview with writer Jonathan Chait on the Democratic war over education reform

Jonathan Chait has been writing about the fraught politics of education reform for over a decade. The veteran political columnist for New York Magazine is a vigorous advocate for the pillars of liberal education reform: high academic standards, school choice, and test-based accountability for schools and teachers who aren’t meeting expectations. It was an outlook that largely...
By Kevin Mahnken | May 11, 2022
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LAUSD failed students with disabilities during the pandemic: parents, advocates, attorneys on how the district should help them now

This article is part of a collaboration between The 74 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. When the pandemic hit, 10-year-old Luis, who has autism, quickly started to regress. Luis’s mother said the boy stopped socialializing after his fourth grade class at his Los Angeles Unified school in Southeast L.A. shut down....
By Rebecca Katz | May 10, 2022
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Candidates for Los Angeles mayor discuss plans to partner with LAUSD for pandemic recovery phase: poverty, mental health, safety on the agenda

This article is part of a collaboration between The 74 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Three Los Angeles mayoral candidates discussed their vision for Los Angeles Unified schools, touching on issues confronting students ranging from poverty, mental health and public safety. Despite the mayor not having direct control over LA...
By Destiny Torres | May 5, 2022
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Majority of LAUSD English learners fail to meet state English and math requirements; families want change

Updated May 4 This article is part of a collaboration between The 74 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The majority of English learner students in Los Angeles Unified district schools failed to meet state math and reading standards in the latest round of assessments, prompting parents to call for better communication...
By Rebecca Katz | May 3, 2022
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Report: Pandemic ‘erased’ a decade of growth in pre-K enrollment

Enrollment in state pre-K programs fell for the first time in two decades after a period of steady growth, according to a new report focusing on the 2020-21 school year. Before the pandemic, states were serving 44% of 4-year-olds. Now they might not reach 40% over the next 10 years, the report found. “The pandemic...
By Linda Jacobson | May 2, 2022
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‘Showdown’ over transgender students’ rights: Title IX rewrite expected to spark litigation from GOP-led states

Harleigh Walker, an Alabama ninth grader, was among the guests at the White House last month when the Biden administration recognized Transgender Day of Visibility. But officials at Auburn Junior High School didn’t think meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris was a valid reason to miss school. “They wanted more evidence that she had gone,”...
By Linda Jacobson | April 28, 2022
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California voters more dissatisfied with local schools after pandemic than voters in other states, new poll finds

This article is part of a collaboration between The 74 and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter. From their dislike of local teachers’ unions to a lack of confidence in school administrators, California voters are more disillusioned with the state of education than voters nationally, a...
By Rebecca Katz | April 26, 2022
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National Teacher of the Year winner Kurt Russell to emphasize diversity as lawmakers in his home state of Ohio rail against ‘divisive’ topics

Sign up here for LA School Report’s newsletter Kurt Russell, a Black history teacher and high school basketball coach from Oberlin High School in Ohio, has been known to give up his planning periods to sit with one of his players in class — just to make sure the student is meeting academic expectations. A...
By Linda Jacobson | April 25, 2022
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This teen shared her troubles with a robot. Could AI ‘chatbots’ solve the youth mental health crisis?

This story is part of a series produced in partnership with The Guardian exploring the increasing role of artificial intelligence and surveillance in our everyday lives during the pandemic, including in schools. Fifteen-year-old Jordyne Lewis was stressed out. The high school sophomore from Harrisburg, North Carolina, was overwhelmed with schoolwork, never mind the uncertainty of living in a pandemic...
By Mark Keierleber | April 21, 2022