LA School Report

By Ama Nyamekye Twenty-two U.S. Senators will sit before Betsy DeVos on Tuesday morning and determine her qualifications to serve as Secretary of Education, a critical role in shaping education policy across our nation. Along with determining the direction for the Department of Education for years to come, this confirmation hearing will prove crucial for another...

Charter schools were mostly approved on consent agendas at the LA Unified school board over the past two meetings. Some charters that were rejected by LA Unified ended up being approved on appeal by the county. In one case this month — as has happened in the past — a school recommended for denial by the...

The latest campaign finance reports in the LA Unified school board races are in and the records show that the most money by far has been raised in the District 4 race where board President Steve Zimmer is running for re-election. A total of $781,646 has been raised by the candidates in the three board...

He doesn’t have all the answers, but Richard Vladovic, fondly referred to as “Dr. V,” said he believes he has some of the answers. This month Vladovic celebrates 50 years in education, serving as a teacher, many times as principal, a superintendent and now as an LA Unified school board member since 2007. He says...

Richard Vladovic remembers the days when he was juggling his military career with teaching. “I would leave on Friday after staying to watch a school football game, jump on a plane and go to Fort Lewis, Washington, and do maneuvers in a Jeep all weekend and then come back to school by 7 in the...

The number of charter schools that will be located on multiple campuses in LA Unified next year will be down from 24 to 22, and the number of schools located on three different campuses will go from eight to four. But that’s not enough and co-located campuses continue to be disruptive to the communities and the...

Students in the Class of 2017 are on a better track toward graduation than seniors were at this time last year, according to preliminary reports released Tuesday by LA Unified. About 47 percent of the upcoming graduation class has a C or better in their required A-G course requirements. That’s compared to 43 percent at...

After flip-flopping on the school calendar a few times to try to start the school year closer to Labor Day, the LA Unified school board voted Tuesday to solidify their school calendar for at least one more year. But they’ll wait for data to approve a calendar for more years. Next year, school will start in mid-August, there’s...

Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions maintained his opposition Tuesday to a federal program that grants temporary legal status to undocumented youth, but he repeatedly dodged questions about what to do with the hundreds of thousands of young people already enrolled in the program. Responding a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham during his confirmation hearing before the Senate...

The four candidates who are seeking a seat representing District 4 for the next five and a half years on the LA Unified school board appeared together for the first time Monday night and discussed the district’s troubled finances, teacher tenure, school choice and charter schools. The candidate forum was sponsored by Speak UP, a...