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“If we don’t fight for our children, who else is going to do it?” Charter advocates to continue Democratic debate protests Thursday in Los Angeles

The rift in the Democratic party over charter schools will be on sharp display again Thursday, as advocates, parents and students rally outside a Los Angeles presidential primary debate to protest what they say is an attack on their freedoms. Advocates frame Democrats’ increasingly sharp rhetoric against charter schools — present at all levels of...
By Carolyn Phenicie | December 18, 2019
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Union Report: Is all the extra state student funding that districts get benefiting the kids? State auditor says we don’t know

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Somehow I missed last month’s report from the California State Auditor on one of former Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature education policy accomplishments: the Local Control Funding Formula. The formula simplified the way the state funded K-12 education in local school districts, giving every district a...
By Mike Antonucci | December 11, 2019
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Teacher Spotlight: Excelencia’s Amber Lewis on getting 81% of her students proficient in math, why teaching is harder than it looks and making sure her kids never feel failed by the system

This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. Letting her students guide their own instruction and learning from each other has been one of the keys to success for...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | December 11, 2019
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A decade of decline at America’s teacher preparation programs: New numbers show enrollment of aspiring educators has fallen by more than a third since 2010

Since 2010 the nation’s teacher preparation programs have seen their enrollment drop by more than a third even as more students are pursuing bachelor’s degrees. At the same time, graduates of these programs declined by almost 30 percent. The dwindling popularity of teaching as a profession means that 340,000 fewer students entered teacher preparation programs...
By Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters | December 9, 2019
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Most states missing key student data from their report cards. 3 parent empowerment groups have advice for making them better

Who should own education data? If you ask the Data Quality Campaign’s Brennan McMahon Parton, it’s the community — students and their families have the right to know how their schools are doing for all students, she says. But some states are making that pretty difficult. That’s why her organization partnered with two other parent...
By Laura Fay | December 9, 2019
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Teacher Spotlight: Synergy Academy’s Paulina Morales on teaching culturally relevant history, being excited about Teen Court and loving graduation day

This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. For a history teacher like Paulina Morales, there has not been a better time than now to engage students in learning...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | December 4, 2019
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Three years into new federal requirement, LAUSD leading the way among the few California districts focused on keeping foster students in their home schools

This story originally appeared in The Chronicle of Social Change In the eastern suburbs of Sacramento County, Kamika Hebbert keeps a watchful eye for signs of how an unstable environment affects young minds. There’s the restlessness that comes with worry about biological parents and siblings. The thousand-mile stare that comes with trauma. The mouthing off...
By Susan Abram | December 2, 2019
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How one organization is using films made by children to bridge cultural differences

As a New York Times reporter, Holly Carter was struck by the rapid disappearance of foreign news bureaus in America. Carter worried that the loss of those agencies would lead to a drastic shortfall of informed citizens, which she said could be “dangerous” for a functioning democracy. As a mother, Carter was growing frustrated by...
By Lauren Costantino | December 2, 2019
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Teacher Spotlight: KIPP Corazon’s Michelle Torres on preparing students to navigate the system better than she did, championing restorative justice and appreciating her trusting parents

This interview is one in a series spotlighting Los Angeles teachers, their unique and innovative classroom approaches, and their thoughts on how the education system can better support teachers in guiding students to success. Michelle Torres never planned to become a teacher but her own struggles as a college student made her realize that through...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | November 20, 2019
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Exclusive: Less than 25% of LAUSD seniors last year took the type of math/quantitative reasoning class California State University wants to make a requirement

As the country’s largest four-year public university considers adding a fourth-year math/quantitative reasoning requirement to its admissions standards, new data obtained by The 74 shows less than a quarter of L.A. Unified seniors last year took such a class. About 23.5 percent of seniors — or 8,472 of 36,124 — were enrolled in a fourth-year...
By Taylor Swaak | November 18, 2019