LA School Report

Every week, we sit down with Los Angeles parents to talk about their students, their schools, and what questions or suggestions they have for their school district. (See our previous interviews.) Students across the nation are ready to make their voices heard on Wednesday as they plan to walk out of their classrooms to honor the 17...

In 1968, thousands of high school students in East Los Angeles walked out of classes to demand an equal and culturally relevant education. At the time, graduation rates for Mexican-American youth were abysmally low and corporal punishment was used to discipline them for speaking Spanish. These walkouts, the largest demonstrations by youth in the city’s history, came...

When parents are choosing a school for their children, what do they need to know and how can they best compare schools? That’s what LA Unified is asking as it continues to build its unified enrollment system. The first evolution of its new online application system launched last fall, and since then over 72,000 families...

Dear Board Members García, Gonez, McKenna, Melvoin, Rodriguez, Schmerelson, and Vladovic: Your choice for LAUSD’s next superintendent will be one of the most important decisions in the history of the district. No one envies the complex choices and tradeoffs you face in the years ahead as you navigate monumental decisions related to fiscal stability and...

Every week, we sit down with Los Angeles parents to talk about their students, their schools, and what questions or suggestions they have for their school district. (See our previous interviews.) When Elizabeth Gómez was told by school administrators that her fourth-grade son can’t and won’t learn because he has Down syndrome, she made it her mission...

Fifty years ago, on March 1st, 1968, several hundred Mexican American and Chicana/o students at Wilson High School initiated an impromptu walkout protest in response to the cancelation of a school play by their principal. Their action sparked into motion a yearlong set of discussions, strategizing, and organizing among eastside Chicana/o students, activists and teachers...

This article first appeared in The Chronicle of Social Change. California Governor Jerry Brown’s budget includes full funding for a state program meant to boost support for foster youth and other vulnerable populations in schools. But advocates are criticizing the program for its lack of expenditure tracking and transparency on how schools spend the state’s money. The...