LA School Report

This is the first article in a series produced in collaboration with The Guardian examining the climate affecting immigrant schoolchildren and their parents as the new school year begins. See a version of this article at TheGuardian.com. If federal immigration agents come knocking, don’t open the door. You have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment and...

A controversial resolution condemning a legislative proposal to start a STEM school in Los Angeles that would be outside LA Unified’s control failed after a heated debate Tuesday. The first school board meeting of the new year was supposed to display board President Ref Rodriguez’s “Kid’s First” agenda. A new help desk was set up to...

How can LA Unified keep itself solvent? Add four more kids to every classroom and take back any money that principals don’t spend at the end of the year. Those were two of the proposals that board members heard Tuesday during an update that announced new hits to the budget since board members approved it...

When parents show up at Tuesday’s school board meeting to complain or gripe or advocate for their child, they will be greeted by something new: a “Kids First” Help Desk. As part of his newly passed resolution to put kids first at LA Unified, school board President Ref Rodriguez said that people who used to...

Don’t open the door. Know your rights. Make an emergency plan for when a family member is detained. LA Unified wants you to know that it “stands with immigrant families.” The new school year started Tuesday with big banners with the image of the Statue of Liberty and the “We Are One LA Unified” campaign’s...

By Francisco C. Rodriguez and Thomas F. Rosenbaum  We oversee two very different institutions. The Los Angeles Community College District is a network of community colleges that serves 250,000 students of all ages. The California Institute of Technology is a private university in Pasadena, with a few thousand undergraduates and graduate students dedicated to exploring...

By Jenny Hontz The LAUSD Board votes Tuesday on a resolution to oppose the creation of an innovative new state-authorized STEM middle and high school intended to increase the pipeline of qualified under-represented students of color and women attending elite STEM universities and entering science, technology, engineering and math professions. The resolution against this proposed school, which...

*UPDATED A battle over a state-run public STEM school proposed for Los Angeles is heating up with two votes scheduled for Tuesday. Two members of the LA County Board of Supervisors support the school, while two LA Unified school board members say LA is “already addressing the need for STEM education.” Legislation to establish the...

New school board member Kelly Gonez is introducing an ambitious resolution that calls for making detailed data available to the public to ensure students are supported and able to complete college and “access a rewarding career.” With this resolution, called “Creating Pathways to Lifelong Success for Our Students,” Gonez is fulfilling a key campaign promise to...

Officers from the Los Angeles school police and California Highway Patrol are coming to Dorsey High School on Saturday to help students raise money for a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. “In light of the Charlottesville tragedy, this event will shine the light on hope not...