LA School Report

LA Unified has settled three cases involving the firing of Rafe Esquith, a celebrated teacher who won many national and international awards, the district announced late Tuesday. The case ends a threatened $1 billion federal class-action lawsuit against the district by attorney Mark Geragos, who was representing Esquith about 2,000 other teachers in opposing the district’s...

*UPDATED LA Unified school board President Ref Rodriguez and his cousin were charged Wednesday with conspiracy and perjury felony counts and 25 misdemeanor counts in connection with allegedly improper campaign reimbursements stemming from his 2014 campaign documents. Rodriguez and his cousin Elizabeth Tinajero Melendrez were each charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit...

LA Unified is heading faster than expected toward the stated goal of 100 percent graduation, with a surprise announcement at Tuesday’s school board meeting that the district hit an 80.2 percent graduation rate for the 2016-17 school year. That’s more than a year ahead of the aggressive graduation growth that Superintendent Michelle King had planned....

By Patricia Rivera This summer, as the beginning of the school year got closer, I started to feel more and more worried instead of feeling excited. After spending nearly six months trying to find my daughter a new middle school, all I had to show for it was an uncertain position on several waitlists. My...

A plan that could have hurt funding for magnet and affiliated charter schools was withdrawn as LA Unified leaders continue to debate the issues of equity in distributing money to schools in the poorest communities. A resolution proposed in June would have reshuffled the Title I money that the federal government allots for low-income schools. The realignment...

California charter middle and high schools would be prohibited from starting school before 8:30 a.m. under a bill that will be voted on by the Assembly this week after a concern was raised that they would have an unfair advantage over district schools for enrollment. The addition of charter schools this month prompted the California...

*UPDATED When Gene Fisher opened an independent public charter school in September 1997 in Watts, it shared a one-room bungalow in a housing project with the Urban League State Preschool. Fisher quickly realized that recruiting kids from rival gangs was not going to happen. So he moved his two kindergarten students and tiny staff, ending...

California school districts started authorizing independent charter schools in 1993. The reformers who created them were inspired to try a different model of public education — one they believed had the potential to better serve disadvantaged, low-income students who were disproportionately stuck in lower-performing schools. Public charter schools were granted flexibilities to have a longer...

Education reform made prime time Friday night with a slew of celebrity guests to promote the XQ Super School Project. The hour-long special aired on all four major TV networks to inspire people to become involved in rethinking the high school experience for the nation’s teenagers. EIF Presents: XQ Super School Project aired live from...

Celerity Educational Group, which operates seven Los Angeles-area independent charter schools, has untangled its complicated management structure that had been the subject of a lengthy investigation by LA Unified. Next week, the LA Unified school board will vote on material revisions to the charters of the four Celerity schools it oversees which spell out the new management...