LA School Report

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...

All eyes have been on March 5 since the Trump administration announced last September that in six months it would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has provided work permits and deportation relief to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. That timeline, the Trump...

As LA Unified commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Walkouts, the district honored eleven educators who are continuing the legacy of Sal Castro, the social studies teacher who guided 15,000 students who left their East Los Angeles classrooms on March 1, 1968, to fight for educational justice. The winners were selected from the Walkouts’ five...

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.) Nearly 84,000 students in LA Unified are enrolled in some type of special education program or receive special support. But what the school has to offer...

What is the greatest education film of all time? Dead Poets Society? Waiting for “Superman”? Actually, can anything top Mean Girls? Sunday night’s Academy Awards show may dethrone some of these classics, as a trio of education films — Lady Bird, Traffic Stop, and DeKalb Elementary — have been nominated for Oscars at this year’s...

It was a school shooting with a very different ending. On Aug. 20, 2013, a man walked into an elementary school in DeKalb County, Georgia, with an AK-47 and 500 rounds of ammunition. Shots were fired. Students were in lockdown. But no one got hurt. Many say that is thanks to Antoinette Tuff, the school...

Before there were Dreamers, thousands of young Latinos marched out of their East Los Angeles classrooms half a century ago for their right to be educated. “I was never told I was college material or capable of aspiring for something better,” said Bobby Verdugo, one of the leaders of the 1968 Chicano student movement known...

* Updated Feb. 28 The LA Unified school board is moving forward quickly to find a new superintendent and has set a March 14 deadline for applications.  The board will start reviewing applications after the search firm of Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates has vetted the applicants and expects to make its selection in April....