LA School Report

One of the toughest jobs for LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer is keeping the seven disparate voices of the board on track and headed toward their stated goal of 100 percent graduation. But to maintain that unity, he hopes fellow board members won’t weigh in against him in his campaign to win reelection in...

While LA Unified continues to drive toward higher and higher graduation rates, district data provided to LA School Report show that more than half of last year’s graduates were not eligible for admission into California’s public universities. Of the Class of 2016’s 26,806 graduates, 47 percent received a C or better in all of their...

AltSchool, a four-year-old network of independent schools, has a dream of growing so that millions of students nationwide can use its personalized learning technology — and it’s starting by adding five executives from charter schools, public school districts, and the tech sector to its team, it announced Thursday morning. “This is a big moment for...

A charter school that was repeatedly denied classroom space in its neighborhood by LA Unified is giving up the fight and will close in June. Westchester Secondary Charter School has operated in three sites during its four years and has never been granted district space in the west side community where its founding families and...

It’s a common refrain in education that research isn’t used wisely, or at all, to inform policy. As states have to redesign their accountability systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the new federal K-12 law, policymakers have the opportunity anew to use evidence to help guide their decisions. That was the topic of...

As many as 17 LA Unified schools could be impacted by California’s bullet train, district officials reported Tuesday. The high-speed rail line, which was just approved last month to begin work in the Central Valley, is intended to take riders from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Depending on its route,...

Imelda Padilla has secured endorsements from two former competitors in her bid for the LA Unified seat representing the east San Fernando Valley. Araz Parseghian, who came in fourth out of six contenders in the March 7 primary, announced on social media Saturday he is supporting Padilla. Padilla said Monday that she also has the...

State Assemblyman Tony Thurmond on Monday announced he will run for state superintendent of public instruction in 2018, setting up a fight between Northern and Southern California as well as a union vs. reform battle. Thurmond vowed to fight the agenda of President Donald Trump and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and to secure more funding...

For one more day, the nation gets to continue its escape from world events via the thrills of March Madness. While important issues of governance have been tying Congress and the Trump administration into knots, a wide cross section of the population has been preoccupied instead with the Sweet Sixteen and the Final Four, fixating...

John King didn’t have long. It was October 2015, and Arne Duncan announced he would step down as President Barack Obama’s education secretary. Obama tapped King, a K-12 adviser at the federal Education Department with years of classroom and government experience, to fill the vacancy. In only about a year in the job, King, among...