LA School Report

Steve Barr showed up at the city Election Division office downtown just before 5 p.m. on Dec. 7, the deadline to turn in signatures to qualify for the 2017 municipal ballot, with 878 signatures and a $300 check in his hands. “I had been thinking about it all day,” he said in his only interview...

By Rafael Alvarez There are approximately 1 million undocumented youth currently living in America who were brought here as children. Practically speaking, this is the only country they have ever known, and they speak English fluently. They want to work hard and contribute to society and yet, up until four years ago, they were mostly...

A 15-page report that details the dramatic 24 hours of the largest one-day shutdown of a school district in U.S. history shows some serious need for equipment and communications upgrades. The report released late Friday afternoon by LA Unified shows how agencies coordinated well during the safety threat, but also revealed a need for updated computer systems and...

Fear and anxiety of what lies ahead with a new Donald Trump administration, particularly for DACA students, led LA school officials to pass two new resolutions this week. A sweeping resolution calling for “safe zones” last month wasn’t enough. Two more resolutions specifically mentioning the new regime were passed this week. Also, the teachers union is...

By the end of Thursday, LA Unified will be letting the state and county governments know that the district may not be able to meet its financial obligations in upcoming years because it faces a cumulative deficit of $1.46 billion through the 2018-2019 school year. Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly gave the unsettling news to...

One year ago today, the second-largest school district in the country made a decision to shut down all its schools. At 6:25 a.m. the call went out after LA Unified school board President Steve Zimmer received an email that threatened students and staff with weapons and bombs. The district was between superintendents. Ramon Cortines had actually...

It’s back to square one. After voting in the fall to start school closer to Labor Day against the superintendent’s recommendation, enough school board members changed their minds Tuesday night and reverted the calendar to this year’s schedule, citing the need to fight decreasing enrollment and the competition from charter schools. That means starting the school year again...

The latest fight over the constitutionality of charter schools in Washington state may not be resolved until 2018, meaning the parents, advocates and educators fighting to save the schools and the teachers union and other groups suing to close them could face a long year of legal wrangling. There have already been some skirmishes — rulings...

By Erica Valente I have always believed that education is the path forward for all families. A few years ago I joined other families at my children’s school, 24th Street Elementary, to lead a campaign for change. Many parents, like me, volunteered hundreds of hours to improve a school that was in the bottom 5 percent of...

As the numbers of Latino students continue to grow at LA Unified, the need for Latino teachers also increases. Some Los Angeles schools are using their own methods to close the gap between Latino students and teachers. Two of the innovators are PUC Schools, with its alumni teachers program, and UCLA Community School, a pilot school...