LA School Report

(This article first appeared in The Chronicle of Social Change.) HopSkipDrive, a child-focused ride-sharing company, announced Tuesday a partnership with Los Angeles County’s Office of Education (LACOE) to transport foster youth to school. Moving at what one official called a “fast and furious” pace to rectify its failure to comply with foster care mandates enshrined in the federal...

One of the most important factors affecting children’s academic success doesn’t come from the classroom — it comes from the support of students’ families. The research is clear: When parents are engaged, children are more likely to succeed. Studies from the U.S. Department of Education, Harvard University, and elsewhere have catalogued the powerful effects of schools’ partnerships...

The familiar battles that have surrounded Education Secretary Betsy DeVos since her own contentious confirmation — private school choice, implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, Title IX, and even guns — remained at the fore Wednesday afternoon as a Senate committee considered two top Education Department nominees. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee considered...

*UPDATE: (New data released Nov. 21 to LA School Report show that the number of applications has increased to 46,568, which is only 4 percent below last year’s figure.) The number of undocumented students in California applying for financial aid for college has dropped 20 percent this year, which advocates say is a direct result of...

The city’s education community sent a clear message Tuesday from downtown Los Angeles to legislators in Sacramento: the governor’s funding formula has not “fixed” the state’s woefully underfunded public education system. The LA Unified school board unanimously approved a resolution to spend resources to advocate in Sacramento to double education funding by 2020 to $20,000...

Oh, California, you paradise, you far-flung western shoal, you frontier beyond purple mountains and fruited plains, you earth-shaking technological marvel, you never-ending party — California, you’re the land of good news, where the economy booms and the culture is wildly, diversely, supremely cool. You’re the golden realm at the end of our national rainbow. Fittingly,...

We’re No. 46! No, we’re 41! Or is it 37? How California ranks on per-pupil spending is a numbers game that most everyone believes the state is losing compared to the rest of the country. LA Unified school board members will decide on Tuesday if they will join the local teachers union in a call...

California parents who want to know how schools are performing will now have to look deeper into the new California School Dashboard to figure it out. The dashboard, which was rolled out this spring as the state’s new way to assess schools and school districts, is a collection of color-coded boxes rating various aspects of...

The application period for LA Unified magnet programs, permits with transportation, and the dual language/bilingual programs will close tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 9. If you are submitting a paper application to enroll your child in one of these choice programs, the envelope you’re mailing to the district should have a postmark with a date of Nov....

In my 27 years as a mathematics professor at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC), I’ve taught every math course typically offered at a community college, from basic skills through calculus. I’ve also taught every type of student you can imagine. Like the courses I teach, my students run the gamut — each requiring unique...