The Morning Read
Your Daily Roundup of LAUSD news from across the web | 10.05.21
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I know how much this pandemic has devastated undocumented families because I grew up in one

I can’t help but feel some guilt as I unpack the fresh produce sprawled out on my kitchen counter among my laptop and my son’s iPad with paired wireless headphones. I think about the family who is undocumented, where the parents don’t speak English, where they are struggling every day to survive so technology and...
By Ana Ponce | May 14, 2020
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Barack Obama, LeBron James, the Jonas Brothers headline nationally simulcast HS ‘Graduate Together’ event on Saturday evening

Former President Barack Obama will deliver a commencement address to graduating seniors nationwide as part of an hour-long multimedia Graduate Together: America Honors the High School Class of 2020 event aired simultaneously Saturday evening by more than 20 broadcast TV and digital streaming partners. Joining Obama in headlining the event are NBA star and school...
By Tim Newcomb | May 13, 2020
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Record-breaking coronavirus job losses devastate the least educated — and have already displaced highest degree holders worse than the Great Recession

An ominous reality was made clear in the Department of Labor’s new employment figures Friday morning: Unprecedented job losses hit the least educated the hardest, but even those with higher degrees weren’t protected from the downturn. And just months ago, the United States was celebrating “the longest economic recovery in history,” marked by record-low joblessness among...
By Kevin Mahnken | May 11, 2020
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New legal theory leads to court ruling that Detroit students have a right to literacy. Now, Michigan’s Governor has until Thursday to act

In recent days, dozens of Detroit parents — quarantined in COVID hotspots with one of the nation’s widest digital divides — have taken to their phones to demand Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer settle a lawsuit that found the state violated their children’s right to learn to read. Using the hashtags #RightToLiteracy and #settlethiscase, some are...
By Beth Hawkins | May 7, 2020
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DeVos releases Title IX campus sexual assault rule, courting controversy amid coronavirus pandemic

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a new rule Wednesday on how K-12 schools and colleges must address campus sexual misconduct, bolstering protections for accused students as the department seeks to combat abuse “without abandoning fairness.” The regulations, which go into effect in August, make wide-ranging changes to schools’ obligations under Title IX, the federal law...
By Mark Keierleber | May 6, 2020
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Despite ‘COVID slide’ concerns, most educators oppose extending upcoming school year to stave off negative effects, survey finds

With school campuses closed nationwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, researchers have warned that students’ time away from the classroom could lead to disruptive learning loss — an anomaly dubbed the “COVID slide.” But most teachers oppose extending the upcoming academic year to confront academic setbacks, according to the results of a new survey. Sixty-five...
By Mark Keierleber | May 6, 2020
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Latino superintendents: ‘Going back to normal’ not their goal after coronavirus crisis

Richard Carranza, chancellor of New York City public schools, says he doesn’t allow people to talk about “going back to normal.” Normal, he said in a virtual convening hosted by the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, was a system in which social and economic privilege determined too much about the quality of a student’s...
By Bekah McNeel | May 5, 2020
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Analysis: Amid the chaos of coronavirus, parent power (and parent organizing) have never been more important. It’s time for education funders to show them the money

In times like these, it is easy to feel powerless. Yet now is exactly the time when we must speak explicitly about power— who has it and who is wielding it to respond to the needs of our communities during this uncertain time. Amid the global Coronavirus crisis, we must continue to focus on and...
By Alex Cortez | May 4, 2020
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Osborne: COVID slide is going to make the usual summer slide even worse. Time to move to year-round school schedules

A Gallup survey done in early April found that 83 percent of parents reported their children were involved in online distance learning. But Gallup conducted the survey online, so it excluded families with no internet connection. That means perhaps a third of students are not participating in remote learning this spring. For them, “summer” will...
By David Osborne | April 30, 2020
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Williams: The politics — and economics — around why we should make pre-K universal are changing

After a flurry of proposals early in the presidential primary campaign, as predicted, public education reassumed its usual place near the bottom of the national political hierarchy. The dynamics followed the normal pattern from recent years. While plenty of the presidential debates — and intervening media coverage — featured discussion of higher education affordability and...
By Conor Williams | April 29, 2020